


Signing Off

by kimurasato



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-23 20:12:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 64,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1578005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimurasato/pseuds/kimurasato
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny works as hit radio personality Badger, and for quite some time, he has been trying to get superstar Phantom to appear as a guest on his show. When he runs into a strange man, Danny's life takes an unexpected turn as he tries to keep up with college, his job, and his new secret life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I blame Icy for the idea for this fic when she told me about something she was watching. I couldn't help imagining what if it happened to Danny. Like with Snow Colored Lens, Danny and Phantom are two separate individuals and always have been.

"Well, listeners of Amity Park, we're nearing the end of the hour, and I have a few reminders so bear with me here. First of all, I'd like to point out, once again, that the fish seen on occasion in the quad's fountain are harmless. Please stop harassing them with ecto based devices. Electrifying the water doesn't just hurt the ghosts. It hurts anyone that accidentally touches the water while the devices remain active. The next person seen disturbing these peaceful ghosts will have a nice, long, and _very_ unpleasant meeting with our beloved dean.

"Also, the janitors wanted me to say that whoever is leaving raven feathers all over campus should cease such activities or they shall take all the feathers that they've collected and deposit them in your dorm room. And don't think the nickname of the Mysterious Poe is fooling anyone. We all know who you are, and you're not getting any cool points for doing this, _Marvin_. But speaking of ravens, last weekend, Dash Baxter led our team into a very satisfying victory against our rivals at Elm University. Go APU Ravens! Wow, we have an unfortunate acronym for our school.

"In honor of our star football player, we want you to send in pictures of our winning touchdown at the last second quarterback. We'll be putting up our favorites over the next week, and the one with the most votes by the end of the month will receive two tickets to the very much anticipated Phantom concert. So get out your cameras and start snapping some pictures! And remember, the e-mail address is the midnight badger at pirate radio dot com. And if that's too hard for you to remember, since it is rather late after all, you can always find the link on our webpage.

"Unfortunately, our honored guest has decided once again to be a no show. I know this is about the tenth time I've promised to have the one and only Phantom on our program for you all to call in with your questions, but I really thought he would come this time. I doubt you're listening to this quiet little midnight to two AM show since it's just a local thing and not worthy of the time of a big superstar, but if you would consider making an appearance, I'm sure your fans would really appreciate it, Phantom. Anyway, this is Badger, signing off. Good night, listeners."

Danny waited until the Off Air light turned on before he released a noisy sigh, removing the headset to place them on the console. "Sam," he growled and snapped his blue eyed gaze toward the door of the studio where he knew the woman would be waiting like she always did after the program ended.

"His manager said Phantom would definitely do the show this time." Sam winced, hugging the clipboard she held close to her chest with one arm as she brushed back a lock of ebony hair behind her ear with the other hand. "I tried getting in contact with him throughout the show, but it just kept going straight to his voice mail. It is two AM, after all. Phantom probably has a lot of other appearances lined up, and he does need his rest."

"I _get that_." Danny sighed as he leaned on the console, pushing up his glasses as he rubbed at his eyes. Exhaustion swept over him in that moment, and he still had some homework that he needed to finish up before an early morning class. "It's just getting really annoying that I keep announcing that he's going to be the guest on the show, and then he flakes out on us."

"It's a good thing no one knows the real identity of the hot radio personality known as Badger," Tucker joked as he joined them in the studio with a chuckle. He had abandoned the red beret that he used to wear some years ago. "I think we'd be surrounded by angry listeners with torches and pitchforks out for your head for the number of times we've promised Phantom would be on the show."

"Don't remind me." Danny groaned, already picturing Dash's furious face inches from his own as the blond jock promised to turn him into a meat patty by pounding him into the ground. He still couldn't believe Dash even listened to the show, and whenever he caught the jock talking to friends about the program, Danny couldn't deny a small swell of pride. Dash, the guy that always treated him like garbage unworthy of even being noticed, liked something about him, though Dash had no idea it was actually Danny Fenton who was the mysterious Badger.

"I'm going to keep trying to contact his manager and try to get him to confirm when Phantom can appear on the show," Sam said, already tapping out a note on her cell phone.

"I'm _not_ announcing him as a guest again until he is actually sitting right there," Danny pointed at the seat across from him in the studio that was reserved for guests, "and ready to answer callers' questions. We can't keep telling the listeners that he'll be here and not following through on that promise. I'm surprised we don't have a ton of hate mail."

"Well, actually-" Tucker started until Sam stomped her heavy boot down on his foot, and he yelped, hopping on one foot as he held the other and grimaced in pain. Danny frowned at the pair that were clearly trying to spare him any hurt feelings by showing him the angry mail from their listeners.

"Don't worry about what any of them have to say." Sam stood behind him and wrapped her arms around Danny's neck in a comforting hug. "We're going to get Phantom on the show. Just leave that detail to me. You know I can be _very_ persuasive."

Danny chuckled. "Oh yeah, definitely." For months, Danny refused to be a part of this whole radio show that Sam decided to put together in their freshmen year at college. But after several, almost frustratingly annoying conversations, she managed to convince him to join as their on air personality while Tucker worked the technical side of things and Sam managed everything and used her contacts to get famous guests for the show.

Her arms squeezed just a touch tighter. "See? You just worry about putting on a good show. I'll deal with pinning down Phantom and getting him to show up." She pulled away, patting him on the shoulder.

"I can't believe he's ditched us ten times now," Tucker said, shaking his head as Danny gathered up his things, packing them away in his bag. On occasion during the program when they had songs playing or went to commercial breaks, Danny had a chance, as small as it was, to work on his homework. He still had about five chapters of the book he needed to finish for his literature class, but he would be able to get that finished before the afternoon when he had Lancer's class.

"Well, when you're a big superstar, you don't have to care about the little guys," Danny grumbled as he slung his bag over one shoulder, the strap wrapping across his chest. "Why would he bother with a show that starts at midnight? He's probably out partying at some club right now." He rolled his blue eyes. "Are you two sticking around?" He lifted a curious eyebrow at his friends.

"Y-Yeah," Sam said, turning violet eyes away from him as she studied her clipboard. "Lots of details with the show to work out, you know. Maybe see if there's someone else we can get on the show in the mean time while Phantom remains unavailable."

"Yeah," Tucker agreed, also not looking at Danny as a light flush colored his dark cheeks. "I've got to run some checks on the equipment. Make sure everything's running properly. We wouldn't want to be in the middle of a show and have the whole thing blow out on us."

Danny nodded slowly, but his friends weren't fooling anyone with those weak excuses. He knew once he left, Tucker and Sam would spend the rest of the night together. They thought they were cleverly hiding the relationship, but Danny wasn't as dense as some people thought he was. He caught them shooting glances at each other then looking away with blushes upon their faces more times than he could count. He knew they had feelings for each other before they even started their secret romance, but he left them thinking he was clueless about it.

"Well, I'll see you guys later then." Danny walked toward the door of the studio. "I've got to get some homework finished, and I'd like to be able to get some sleep before my first class." He gave them a wave goodbye as he left through the door. He walked down the hall from the studio then down the several flights of stairs, and headed out of the building where they broadcasted their radio program.

Danny scratched a hand through his hair with a tired sigh. Some nights, it sucked away all his energy to run the show, especially when he thought about the homework he still had left to finish. Luckily, his class schedule allowed for some sleep during the day if he managed things properly. His shoulders slumped as he dug his hands into the pockets of his loose pants and headed in the direction of his apartment. Tucker had an apartment he shared with a few roommates on the other side of the college campus where he would be nearer to all the tech courses that he was taking. Sam got her own apartment, stating that it would be too weird if it was only the two of them living alone in the apartment. Danny agreed it probably would be strange, and the other students would probably start teasing them about being in a relationship. He rolled his eyes with a snort. Anyone who actually looked at the trio of friends would see that the lovebirds weren't him and Sam but Tucker and Sam instead. Unfortunately, not everyone at the college was that smart, or observant, and still believed that there was something going on with him and Sam.

Shaking his head, he tried to rid the thoughts from his mind as he cut across the campus, passing under the trees and their thick canopy of leaves. It made his walk from the radio studio to his apartment shorter, but the trees blocked his view of the twinkling stars overhead. Some nights, he could stand there gazing up at the vastness of the sky for hours, naming the different constellations in his mind as he found them. He always enjoyed stargazing, ever since he was a child and he would sit in his mother's lap as they pointed out the stars to each other. He really loved those nights.

A bark tore his attention away his thoughts of stars and space. Dropping his blue gaze toward the ground, Danny smiled when he saw the green dog bouncing around his feet and barking happily at him. He crouched down and scratched behind the dog's ears, or at least he mimed the gesture. Being a ghost, the dog was intangible, making it hard to physically touch him. Unless of course, the dog wished to be touched.

"You should know better than to come here, Cujo," Danny said, giving the dog a stern look. "What if a mean old dog catching ghost hunter decided to pay us a visit?" Though the college campus was generally a safe place for ghosts, like the fish that appeared in the fountain, ghost hunters were still a concern for all the local ghosts. Amity Park was famous for all the ghosts that lived in the small town, and the residents learned to live in harmony with the ghosts, though there were still quite a few anti-ghost members residing within the town. And the occasional students with a mean streak that liked to harass the ghosts. Danny came to know his fair share of them during his lifetime. But ghost hunters still managed to make an appearance in Amity Park to stir up trouble and disrupt the peace.

Cujo sat down before him and barked, his purple tongue hanging out of his parted mouth. When his tail wagged behind him, it was with such force that his whole body seemed to shake from the movement. It was hard to imagine that anyone would kill such an adorable puppy, but there Cujo was like so many other ghosts in town. They even had the ghost of a lunch lady that still worked in the cafeteria. Any changes to the menu had to go through her, or the whole college would feel her wrath.

Danny chuckled and shook his head. "Okay, okay. I know what you want." He dragged his side bag to the front and dug around inside it. When Danny held up his hand, Cujo stood up and barked, prancing around in a circle in wait of the treat that was in the man's hand. "First, you have to show me a trick." Danny held his hand back, waiting for the dog to perform.

Cujo tilted his head, one black ear dangling at the side of his head while the other ear perked upward in a show of his confusion. Danny didn't cave. They met several years ago when Danny was still in high school, and every time the dog came around, Danny made him do a trick before giving him a treat. Then the cute little puppy that barely even reached to his knees suddenly shot up in height, towering over the man as thick green drool dripped from his mouth. Danny stared up at the ghost, his jaw nearly dropping at the sight of the ferocious looking dog.

"That... sure is some trick," Danny remarked numbly, having never seen Cujo sprout up like that. In a blink of the eye, the dog reverted back to his normal, playful size and barked for his treat. "Here you go." Danny tossed the little blob of ectoplasm shaped into a dog bone biscuit that Cujo easily caught in his mouth, munching happily on it. "You better get back home before anything happens to you. Okay?" He gave the dog another stern look, but Cujo merely licked him on the cheek after eating his treat. With a sigh, Danny stood, wiping cool moisture from his cheek. "See you around later." He waved to Cujo before continuing on his way home as he hummed to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

A heavy beat pounded into his head, and Danny cracked open his eyes to stare at the clock facing him on his nightstand. The red numbers announcing that it was six in the morning burned into his vision before he tore his gaze away and rolled onto his back. He groaned, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes as the noise that woke him continued drumming repetitively. Throwing off his blankets, Danny climbed out of bed and made his way, carefully so as not to trip over the stuff on his floor, to the door.

"Spike!" Danny shouted over the noise as he crossed over to the door of the other bedroom in the apartment. "Spike!" He pounded a fist on the door, which thankfully led to silence as the other man stopped drumming to answer the door.

"What?" Spike questioned in dull voice with no hint of emotional inflation. He wasn't exactly Danny's ideal choice of roommates, and he still didn't know if Spike was even his real name or some nickname he gained, from what Danny was certain he didn't want to know. His skin was a sickly pale, almost white, and the black lip stick and eyeliner didn't help improve his complexion. Tattoos covered nearly every inch from wrist to shoulder on his arms, and he had piercing in both his ears and his left eyebrow and one in his nose.

"I thought we talked about the whole not playing drums at the crack of dawn thing," Danny said tiredly, wishing for just another half an hour of peace before he actually had to get up and prepare for his first class.

"My apartment, remember?" Spike asked, folding his arms as he leaned against the doorframe. "You don't like it, you can leave." The corner of his mouth twitched, almost stretching into a smirk before he schooled his expression back to a look of boredom. "Oh, right. I was the only one that agreed to be your roommate and you don't have the money to live in your own place." Spike stepped back and closed the door in Danny's face. The drumming started up a moment later.

Danny resisted the urge to kick the door down and snatch the drumsticks right out of the man's hands. His teeth ground painfully as he raised a clenched fist. With a frustrated growl, he pushed away from the door and stomped toward his room. Sometimes, college life felt more like a nightmare. After a month of blissful silence from his roommate, he thought that talk actually stuck, but apparently Spike was just letting him live in delusion before bringing that idea to a beat pounding crash.

Once in his room, Danny hurriedly got dressed, nearly stumbling and toppling over as he yanked on his jeans. He grabbed his maroon hooded sweatshirt with the APU stitched in white across the front and the school's raven mascot on the back. His bright blue eyes rolled as he recalled his on air comment from earlier that morning. Their university really needed a new acronym because anything with a P followed by a U was never a good name. After cramming his books in his bag, Danny slung the strap across his body then grabbed his glasses from the night stand along with his keys.

Even after he left the apartment and closed the door behind him, Danny could still hear the pounding of the drums. _Maybe it's time I get earplugs_ , he thought with a tired sigh as he started down the hall. But if he couldn't hear his alarm, he ran the risk of sleeping too late and missing his classes. He would probably have better luck looking for a new apartment.

"Yo, Fenturd!"

His muscles tensed up when he heard that familiar voice, and with a sigh, Danny lifted his head and glanced toward where the jock stood leaning against the wall. He groaned to himself when he saw Dash Baxter posing as Paulina, probably the prettiest woman at the college, snapped pictures of him. He began to rethink that whole contest idea now. Dash already had a big head, thinking himself god's gift to, well, everyone. The contest with people showering him with more attention was bound to make his giant head explode.

"What do you want, Dash?" Danny asked, unable to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

"Can't you make that stupid roommate of yours stop with that racket so early in the morning?" Dash demanded as he pushed away from the wall. He stomped over to Danny and tried to use what little of a height advantage he had left to loom over the raven haired man. Back in high school, that probably would have had Danny shaking in his boots, but now he was only slightly shorter than the jock.

"Hey, if you want to yell at him, be my guest." Danny half turned back to his apartment and gestured for Dash to pass him with one arm. "He won't listen to me, but maybe you can use your fists like usual to beat him into doing what you want." He stared dryly at the jock, and he half suspected that his show of not being terrified of him annoyed Dash even more than the drumming coming from his apartment.

"Oh! Don't move! That's a great one!" Paulina appeared beside them, and the flash from her camera nearly blinded Danny.

"Paulina," Dash growled, turning to face her as he placed a hand to Danny's face and shoved him back a few steps. "The Badger said to send in photos of me." He jabbed his chest with a finger. "They don't want some loser dweeb in the picture!"

Danny scowled as he removed his glasses then wiped at them with the hem of his shirt, yanking it out from under his sweatshirt. "They never said anything about the pictures being solo shots." He really hadn't considered that point when he came up with the contest idea, but he couldn't really reject any pictures if they happened to have someone else in them with Dash since he never mentioned that as a rule to the contest. "Maybe you'd get lucky with a couple shot of the two of you. Romance sells, doesn't it?"

"Oh! That's a great idea!" Paulina shoved the camera into his hands a second after Danny replaced his glasses. "Make it look good," she ordered as she and Dash posed like a happy couple, though Danny knew for a fact that they weren't involved. "I'm going to win this contest and get those tickets to see Phantom."

"I don't know if we should trust him," Dash said, pursing his mouth as Danny adjusted the camera to take a picture. "He might run off and use it himself to win the contest."

"Please!" Danny snorted with a roll of his eyes. "I don't even care about going to see Phantom." He waited until the two actually had a decent pose before he snapped a photo of them, though he wasn't sure why he was even bothering to help them. Paulina tended to be a good source of gossip, so Danny always liked to stay on her good side, when possible.

Dash broke out laughing after the picture was taken. "You don't care about Phantom? You ? Seriously?"

Danny's face burned red as he shoved the camera back at Paulina. "Whatever, Dash. I still have homework I need to finish." He pushed past the two of them as he continued down the hall toward the stairs. He nearly rammed into Kwan as the other jock came out of his apartment, but he managed to halt and sidestep around him before they could collide.

"What was that about?"

Danny heard Kwan asking his friends before he turned down the stairwell and raced down them to the ground floor as fast as he could. When he left the building, he breathed in deeply then exhaled slowly, happy to be away from the irritating racket of his roommate and the potential pounding from the jocks. Folding his arms, he walked through the university campus, pondering if he had time to catch Sam and Tucker to hang out for a little while. He frowned and shook his head. They had a later class and usually slept in for another hour or so. He didn't want to wake them, knowing they probably had a late night. A grin tugged at his mouth, and he rolled his eyes, wondering when they would simply come out and announce that they were a couple so that he could stop pretending to be oblivious.

His stomach rumbled with a gnawing sensation at his side. He definitely needed to grab some food before class started. Making a turn, he headed for the cafeteria to buy something to eat. He passed by the fountain in the quad on his way, and it didn't surprise him to see the dean of their university, Mrs. Ishiyama, carting off one of the known harassers of the ghost fish by the ear. Danny had seen Alan Shaw with one of those devices that electrifies the water and disrupts the ghosts' ability to maintain its form.

Mrs. Ishiyama took up the position of dean at Amity Park University seven years ago, well before Danny started attending. The previous dean cared little for the ghosts residing in their town, and he even encouraged cruelty toward any ghosts that appeared on campus. Danny was glad he didn't attending APU while that man was dean. When she became dean, Mrs. Ishiyama added strict rules against harassment toward ghosts. But as with any form of bullying, rules didn't always prevent it from happening.

Danny reached into his bag, searching around until he found one of ectoplasm treats that he usually carried around for whenever Cujo decided to pop up. He crumbled it up in his hands as he approached the fountain after Mrs. Ishiyama and Alan were well out of sight. Only a few other students were milling about the quad at the early hour, and they mostly ignored him. Sometimes, Danny almost felt like he belonged more among the ghosts than with humans when so many of his classmates treated him like he was invisible. If only Dash could do the same as them, Danny might not mind being invisible so much.

"Eat up," Danny said as he sprinkled the crumbs of ectoplasm into the fountain's water. He stood there watching the fish eagerly sucking up the bits of ectoplasm into their mouths for a while. There were only three of them today, but it wasn't unusual for the amount of them to vary.

With a small wave, Danny left the fish and continued on his way toward the cafeteria, which was a bit busier than the quad. Students who didn't care to waste a lot of money eating out at the restaurants and fast food joints around the university often hit the cafeteria for a cheap meal. Danny kept some food back at the apartment, lots of ramen, but with Spike playing his drums, he didn't care to stick around there to have his breakfast. He glanced over the menu with a frown and checked his wallet to see how much cash he had to spare.

After deciding on a simple blueberry muffin and bottle of water, Danny headed to a little nook in the back where he could comfortably work without worry of anyone spying over his shoulder. He knew no one would care to look at what he was working on, but he would rather not take the chance that someone might discover his identity as Badger. Once he was settled, he pulled out his laptop from his bag and set it on the table. He took a bite from his muffin as the laptop booted up then checked his e-mail to see if anything came in already about the contest.

Danny snorted a laugh when he opened the first e-mail with a few pictures attached. Seeing a bunch of images of Dash wasn't exactly the way he wanted to spend his morning, but he didn't actually expect to have so many responses already to the contest. He had at least fifteen people that sent in an average of four pictures. They were obviously from Dash's jock friends, or at least people present at wherever Dash decided to party last night. Danny actually liked the one of Dash and Kwan hanging out together, smiling like great friends as they toasted a drink. He added the ones he thought were the best from each person onto their website, though voting wouldn't commence until the submission period was over, to be fair to the last minute entries. It was, he realized, a strange little peek into the life of Dash Baxter. Not all the pictures were staged like the one he took of Dash and Paulina, and those ones where he wasn't posing in any way were the ones that Danny actually liked the best.

Shaking his head as he finished updating the website, Danny popped the last bite of the muffin into his mouth. Once the laptop was shut down, he returned it to his bag then grabbed his water bottle. He tossed the muffin wrapper into the garbage as he passed it on his way out of the cafeteria. He checked his watch then headed off to his first class of the day.


	3. Chapter 3

He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall just above the door, and his brow lifted in surprise to that the class was almost over. Danny pinched his nose, hardly believing how fast the class went by, but it always seemed like his literature class passed in a flash while some of his other classes dragged on forever. His science class wasn't too bad, though he wasn't allowed to participate in any of the experiments after breaking one too many beakers. The study of ghosts and their physiology of their makeup was a pretty interesting course too. Growing up in Amity Park surrounded by ghosts, he always had a bit of an interest in them, and their university had the best program to learn more about them. The assistant teacher happened to be a ghost, appointed by Mrs. Ishiyama, but he sometimes went off on a tangent talking about technology. Danny's mouth pulled into a smile as he thought about how Technus and Tucker probably would get along well because of their love for technology.

"Remember to finish chapters fifteen to twenty for our next class," Lancer announced as the class came to an end. Virtually everyone in the class sighed out in relief to be able to get out of the class, but Danny groaned internally, sometimes wishing the class was longer because he enjoyed discussing books. "Be sure to leave your answer sheets on my desk before you leave." He picked up the eraser and started clearing the board of his notes.

Danny closed his notebook then shoved his things into his bag. Standing up, he slung the bag across his chest. Then he followed the other students to the front the class with his assignment in his hand. When he reached the desk, he laid the paper on top of the stack like all the other students.

"Ah, Mr. Fenton," Lancer said before Danny could walk away. "I'd like a word with you before you go."

Danny swallowed, hearing a few giggles from two women that passed him by on the way out the door. With a nod, he stepped out of the way of the other students leaving the classroom. When they were the last two in the room, Lancer walked over to the door and closed it.

"Uh, did I do something wrong, Sir?" Danny questioned with a nervous shift as he folded his arms. He had a pretty good relationship with Lancer, he thought, and they got along well when it came to discussing books.

"You're not in trouble," Lancer said as he took a seat at his desk. His fingers laced together over the desk as he stared at Danny with his green eyes piercing into his student in that way that made Danny shuddered. While Danny might get along with the man, Lancer was still a teacher, and he had that way of striking fear into his students with a simple look.

"Then why do you need to speak with me?" Danny frowned, his brow creasing as he tried to puzzle out the reason for his teacher to hold him after class. "Did I mess up something with my last essay?"

"No, no." Lancer shook his head. "Your essay was perfectly written." A rare smile appeared on the man's face. He didn't often give those kinds of smiles to his students. "A joy to read, especially compared to some of your classmate's essays."

"I'm glad it was up to your standards." Danny breathed a sigh of relief at his teacher's answer. "But then, why do you need to talk to me?"

"I happened to catch a certain program last night while I was up late grading papers," Lancer explained, and Danny swallowed nervously as he shifted his weight again. Lancer's brow met in the center, and he frowned severely at his student.

"O-Oh?" Danny lifted his eyebrows, trying to appear curious. There was no way Lancer could have figured at that he was really Badger.

Lancer tilted his head down a touch, and Danny's breath caught in wait to see what his teacher would say next. "Daniel, I'm very much aware that you and your friends run that program. Don't," he added sternly, pointing a finger at Danny before his student couldn't even attempt to protest, "lie to me."

Danny's muscles tensed up, knowing that Lancer would be able to spot a lie. Sometimes, he felt like the man was a human lie detector. "Is there a problem with the show?" He looked away, unable to meet his teacher's gaze.

"I'm not going to reprimand you for participating in an underground radio program. I happened to do a bit of radio hosting back in my college days." Lancer grinned with a look of reminiscence in his eyes.

"I thought you were a cheerleader in college," Danny said with a confused furrowing of his brow. "Uh, right. That's not relevant here." He rubbed at the back of his neck when Lancer landed a glare on him.

"Doing one does not mean I was unable to do the other," Lancer pointed out. He sighed and wiped a hand over his bald head. Danny wasn't sure if he was bald because he lost all his hair or if he decided to shave his head bald at some point. "Firstly, I would like to ask if the radio program is interfering with your sleep and your school work."

Danny shook his head. "No, I have plenty of time to get to all my classes, finish my work, and catch enough sleep while still having some down time to just hang out with my friends." Sometimes it still astounded him that there were teachers that actually cared about their students. Danny remembered stepping into one of his math classes to see only one other student, Mikey if he remembered the name correctly, sitting in the front row with a tape recorder on his desk. It was only the two of them for the entire period, and the teacher never bothered with taking attendance or even stopping in his lecture to care that Danny had showed up five minutes late that day. Danny was fairly certain that Mikey sold his notes to the other students in the class, and he probably made a killing on it.

"Good, good." Lancer nodded. "I would be very displeased if you were allowing your grades to slip or disregarding your health for this radio program. I do think the three of you were very wise to put this show together. You provide local news to everyone at the college, as well as anyone else in town who cares to tune in at midnight. And I suspect plenty of students are awake at that hour, whether that's to study or to party. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

"I'm sorry, Sir." Danny shook his head, still not sure where Lancer was trying to take this conversation. It seemed that Lancer approved their show, which made Danny happy as it meant that he wasn't likely to inform the dean or anyone else and get them shut down. But he couldn't think of what the man was trying to get out. "What _did_ you need to talk to me about?"

"In regards to this little contest you've decided to host." Lancer landed another stern stare upon his student.

"If it's about the prize, there's no need to worry." Danny crossed his arms over his chest then uncrossed them in one sift movement. "Sam knows some people, and she's secured two tickets to the upcoming Phantom concert. And they are really good seats too. Whoever wins them will be really happy with those tickets."

"Oh, no." Lancer raised a hand as he shook his head. "I have no qualms with the prize. I have no doubts that you will come through with whatever prize you announce for a contest. You are quite the reliable young man. No, it's the nature of the contest that drew my concern. It may seem like a harmless idea, but surely you can also see how it can be used to defame Mr. Baxter and cause him great humiliation depending on the nature of the pictures."

"Oh. Oh!" Danny's eyes grew wide as he understood Lancer's meaning. "I have no intention of putting up any pictures that could harm Dash in any way." As tempting as that might be to him considering how awful Dash could treat him. "I haven't seen any that would damage his image. And if any turned up, I certainly won't be putting them up on the website. Dash and I may not be best friends, but if he saw something he didn't like, that could be trouble for whomever took the pictures. And well, me if he ever found that I'm Badger."

Lancer nodded. "I'm glad to hear that. I would be rather disappointed if you used this opportunity to humiliate Mr. Baxter on such a grand scale. A lot of people, not only from the college but from the town, look at that site." He stared at his student with a frown on his tired, aged face. "And don't think I'm unaware of his treatment toward you and some other students. Unfortunately, as I have not caught him in the act or been inform of what is happening _as_ it is happening, the only form of punishment I can give him is to push him a little harder in his school work than most of my other students."

Danny could understand the man's position. This was college, and Lancer couldn't simply bestow harsh punishment upon Dash without any hard evidence that he was the one harming other students or breaking the school rules in any way. It was their word against his, and Dash usually had some way of talking himself out of trouble. "Was that all, Sir?" Danny questioned, his blue eyes sliding toward the door.

"Right." Lancer got to his feet as he gathered the papers from the corner of his desk. "You probably have more important things to do then spend your free time with your teacher." He smirked a little. "Your friends are probably waiting for you to discuss details about your show tonight."

Danny started toward the door then stopped and turned back to his teacher. "Sir, how exactly did you know that we were the ones running the radio show?" He frowned, worrying that if Lancer figured it out, then others might too.

"I happen to be very in tune with the ongoings of our fine institute." They stared at each other for a moment before Lancer cracked a smirk. "And I happen to know someone that works in the building where you've based your studio."

"You're not going to tell anyone about this, are you?"

"I haven't yet, have I?" Lancer wore a smirk as he snapped the locks closed on his briefcase.

"Thanks, Sir. I appreciate you keeping our secret." After a quick goodbye, Danny left the classroom. He didn't have any more class that day, so he was free to hang out with Sam and Tucker before their next classes. Exiting the building, he headed across campus to find his friends.

"Hey, Danny!"

He paused, blinking in surprise over whom was calling out to him. When he turned around, he saw Paulina jogging up to him. "Uh, hi," he responded with his brow creased and his mouth pressed into a thin line. The woman didn't usually come up to him in the middle of a crowded area of the university.

"Have you ever considered taking up photography?" Paulina asked as she latched onto his arm, pulling him along with her as she kept walking. "That shot you took of me and Dash earlier was amazing! I was thinking," she smiled at him in that way she usually used to charm men into doing stuff for her, "maybe you could help out and take a few more pictures for us for the contest. With your awesome photography skills, we'd probably be a shoe in for winning that contest."

"I don't know," Danny said awkwardly, scratching at the back of his head as he frowned. He didn't think it would be fair exactly if he helped Dash and Paulina out with taking pictures for the contest that _he_ was hosting. At the same time, however, he wasn't the one that would be choosing the winner. That was entirely up to the people that voted on the pictures.

"Please!" Paulina begged as she batted her eyes prettily at him.

Danny sighed. The time she actually paid attention to him was only to help her chances to see Phantom live in concert. "I guess maybe I could do a small photo shoot with you. Um," he paused to ponder over his schedule, "tomorrow's Saturday, so I should be free enough to meet up then."

"Thanks!" Paulina hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek before she stepped back. "Maybe I'll help you out with that little roommate problem you're having." She gave him a wave before she headed off, disappearing into the crowd.

Danny raked a hand through his raven hair then shook his head. Agreeing to that probably wasn't his best decision, but it was too late to back out now that he said he would. On the upside, he might not have to worry about waking up early in the morning because of Spike practicing his drums if everything worked out for him. He smiled at that thought as he walked toward the spot where he usually met Sam and Tucker.


	4. Chapter 4

Danny yawned tiredly as he followed the pair across campus. He remained a couple of feet behind them, though that hardly seemed to make a difference while everyone that they passed stopped to stare at them. Everyone at the university knew how much Dash liked to pick on him, and Danny could only imagine they were wondering what horrors Dash had planned for the loser in tow behind him. He hunched his shoulders, burying his face as best as he could in his maroon hooded sweat shirt while shoving his hands into his pockets. The whole photo shoot thing was seeming more and more like a bad idea with each passing second as they neared the big gate at the entrance to the university.

"Where exactly are we going?" Danny asked when he could stand the silence no longer. He was woken up yet again by the infernal drumming of his neighbor and forced to escape to the cafeteria for a quiet breakfast where he did his usual routine of checking his secret e-mail to see what new submissions to the contest came in. So far, Lancer's worry about someone abusing the contest idea to humiliate Dash hadn't bore any fruit as most of the pictures were fairly tame and harmless. He received one of Dash while the jock was sleeping in class, but he decided to nix that one simply because he doubted Dash would appreciate the other students laughing at him for the puddle of drool that covered his notebook while he slept.

"Downtown, of course!" Paulina answered brightly as she turned to walk backwards so that she could face him while talking to him. Danny wondered how the woman had so much energy and if it was possible to siphon off some of it and store it in a bottle. He could probably make a killing if he sold bottle energy that made people feel as happy and bouncy as Paulina could be in the morning. "What better place to take some shots than at some of the local sights? It's going to be great!"

Danny rolled his blue eyes once the woman turned back around, and a sigh escaped his parted lips.

"Man, this Badger guy is great," Dash said, pulling the earplugs out as they passed through the front gate and headed toward the downtown area of Amity Park. "He knows, like, everything! Listen." He rewound for a few seconds on the music player in his hand then hit the play button after yanking out the earplugs so they could all hear the recording.

"... to Alan Shaw for being the first student to have the pleasure of speaking with our beloved dean after I warned you all not to mess with the fish in the quad's fountain. Applause to you, Sir." A sound bite of people applauding played for a few seconds. Danny heard the voice manipulation when they first started the show and Tucker wanted to prove to him that no one would be able to tell he was Badger because their voices would sound nothing alike. He hadn't heard himself on the radio since then, and it was strange now to hear Dash playing the broadcast from last night's show.

"What a dumbass," Dash said, snickering at Alan's misfortune.

"I also have the pleasure of announcing the appearance of a new ghost on campus," Badger continued. "She was scene loitering around the student counseling offices, so if you need to make a trip there, I suggest caution when speaking to her. Several students have shown signs of increased depression after an encounter with her, so if you're feeling down on yourself, I advise avoiding her at all costs. And to all of you, remember, you are all awesome people with amazing personalities and talents."

"Okay, here. He's going to talk about me again." Dash grinned proudly.

Paulina rolled her emerald eyes. "He gets all excited anytime Badger mentions him on air. I swear he's a total fan boy."

"Paulina!" Dash growled, his cheeks darkening a few shades with a blush that made Danny raise his eyebrows at the blond jock.

"We've had some amazing pictures sent in so far of our star quarterback," Badger said. "But I bet you all can take even better pictures of Dash Baxter. The submission period will end midnight this Sunday, and you'll be able to start voting on your favorite pictures Monday morning. There's still plenty of time, so get out there and find Dash and take as many awesome pictures of him as you can. This is Badger, signing off. Good night, listeners of Amity Park." The music player fell silent as the recording of last night's show came to an end.

"I wonder if anyone's figured out who Badger really is," Dash said with an awestruck look in his eyes that made Danny feel slightly uncomfortable around him. "How does he get around all over the place to know everything that goes on?"

"Maybe he's a ghost," Danny suggested, shrugging his shoulders. "He could float around unseen, watching what everyone's up to, and most people wouldn't even know he's there."

"A ghost?" Dash snorted. "Yeah right, Fentweeb. If he was a ghost, why would he even bother with hosting a radio show?"

"Ghosts have obsessions, right? Maybe his obsession was becoming a successful radio host, and now he's getting to live that dream in his afterlife." Danny was pulling at random ideas to cover the truth that he was Badger, but the fact that it sounded plausible based on their knowledge of ghosts added that convincing level he needed.

"Hm, I suppose that could be possible," Paulina said with a painted pink nailed finger pressed to her chin in thought. "It _would_ explain how he knows so much about everything that happens around the university."

"So he becomes this famous radio host, but he refuses to show himself?" Dash's mouth pursed in that way Danny often saw it do when he was thinking hard about something. Danny was surprised his face didn't turn red as smoke issued from his ears.

"Maybe he was horribly disfigured and he's too embarrassed to show himself." Danny shrugged as they entered what was considered downtown Amity Park. It was a quick walk from the university, thankfully. "Or maybe he just likes moving about invisibly. If everyone knew who he was, maybe they would act differently when they saw him around and he wouldn't be able to properly look around the campus for interesting news to report on his show."

"You seem to know an awful lot about this," Dash said, narrowing his dark blue eyes in suspicion at Danny. "You come up with those answers pretty fast."

"I'm studying the paranormal," Danny said with a roll of his eyes. "Part of that study is trying to think in the mind set of a ghost and understand their reasoning and motivation for doing the things they do. Take that ghost Badger mentioned, that one in the counseling office. Just from that little sampling, I would guess that the ghost feeds upon the negative feelings of the people she talks to, in the process making them feel even more depressed than previously. There could be a number of reasons _why_ she does this, though power gain seems to be the most popular reason. If that's the case, Principal Ishiyama will likely want to have her removed from the university for the safety of her students."

"I don't know whether to be impressed," Dash said, frowning, "or find you more weird for knowing stuff like that."

"Hey, I'm just glad my parents aren't here to teach some of the classes." Danny groaned at the thought. " _You_ ," he narrowed his eyes at Dash, "already put enough of a target on my back without my parents here to embarrass me all the more."

"Enough about that." Paulina shoved a camera into Danny's hands. "Time to take some pictures. Now," she frowned thoughtfully, "how should we pose this time?"

"No, no, no." Danny shook his head, waving a hand before him. "No posing. The best pictures will be the ones with Dash acting natural, like he isn't even aware of a camera being on him."

"You think?" Paulina blinked at him curiously.

Danny nodded. "My vote is going to be for the picture that I think best shows the Dash that people don't often get to see. Posing just gives off this aura of fakeness." He turned his gaze onto Dash. "You don't want to appear fake, right?"

"So what are we supposed to do, Mr. Genius?" Dash demanded, folding his beefy arms as he frowned.

Danny sighed inwardly, wondering why he had to be the one to think of everything. Honestly, he didn't know why he got dragged into this in the first place. He took some photography classes in high school, but he mostly only photographed the night sky when he had the chance. Taking pictures of people was another matter entirely, and he knew his pictures weren't as good as Paulina made them out to be when she came up to him yesterday. A lot of times, his pictures of people ended up blurry and out of focus.

"Just walk around," Danny suggested with a shrug. "Pretend I'm not even here, that should be pretty easy. Just, you know, find something interesting, like-" He glanced around the downtown area for something that might inspire a good picture of Dash. "Like that!" He pointed toward a street performer sitting on the rim surrounding a bed of flowers in front of one shop. "You and Paulina should dance. Show the students of APU your moves." He held his arms up like he had an invisible dancing partner then swayed his hips.

"I don't dance," Dash said gruffly as he turned his head away with his mouth pressed thin.

"Oh, come on, Dash!" Paulina grabbed Dash by the arm and dragged him toward where the street performer was strumming along on a guitar that looked far more taken care of than the man himself. "It'll be fun!" She tried to encourage Dash to dance with her, but the jock wouldn't budge from his stance with his arms folded and looking away like he was trying to pretend he didn't know Paulina.

"Gee, Dash, loosen up a bit!" Danny shoved the camera into Dash's hand. "It's easy." Paulina seemed hesitant when he stepped up to her with his hands held out. He rolled his eyes. "Will you just-" He waved his hands before him.

Paulina sighed, frowning with unhappiness as she allowed him to place his left hand on her hip and take hold of her hand with his right. He maneuvered her around a few steps, then spun her around, and drew her back against his chest. Paulina seemed to get into the dance as they swayed together. Then Danny pulled her into a dip, grinning, before drawing her back into an upright position.

"See? It's easy," Danny said as he plucked the camera from Dash's hands.

"When did you learn to dance?" Paulina asked in surprise.

"Sam's mom made her take all these classes on becoming a proper lady." Danny rolled his eyes. "One class involved dancing, and since she would terrorize any of the guys in the class that touched her, I got dragged along to be her dance partner." He turned his gaze to Dash. "But if this idea doesn't interest you, we can keep looking."

"No dancing," Dash said firmly as he walked down the street, passing by the street performer.

"Well, I thought it would be fun," Paulina admitted with a frown before she followed after Dash.

Danny sighed as he dug into his pocket and found some loose change in his wallet. After dropping the coins into the open guitar case, he hurried to follow after the other two. He shadowed Dash and Paulina for what felt like hours as the pair found some fun things to do around downtown. Danny caught a few good shots, like when they stopped at an arcade and Dash challenged Paulina to a car racing game. Paulina did a not so graceful dance of victory when she beat Dash at the game, though the jock wasn't very happy to have lost. He captured a cute one when they stopped by a local ice cream shop called I Scream. Paulina and Dash shared a sundae together, and it turned into a sloppy mess when Paulina smeared some ice cream onto Dash's nose and he retaliated. It dissolved into a tickle fight that nearly got all three of them kicked out of the shop.

"I think that's enough," Danny said, checking the camera to see the roll was almost finished. "You have to get back to campus and let _other_ people take some pictures of you, or this whole contest won't be fair." He handed the camera back to Paulina.

"Thanks for taking the pictures." Paulina smiled with a smear of ice cream still on the side of her face, but she seemed to happy to even notice it.

Dash hunched up his shoulders as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I suppose this wasn't entirely a bad day," he said, refusing to look at Danny.

He rolled his eyes, but Danny wasn't surprised the jock had difficulty even saying something like that to him. "I'll see you later." He waved to them as Dash and Paulina headed back toward campus.

After checking his watch, he decided he had plenty of time to hang out around downtown for a while longer on his own before he had to get back to campus to meet up with Sam and Tucker to discuss that night's show. He rummaged around in his bag to find his music player then shoved the earplugs comfortably into his ears. Music blocked out the usual noise of the downtown area as he walked around, observing the people he past and catching sight of a few familiar and unfamiliar ghosts that hung about the area. He hummed along to the music as he walked, taking mental notes of anything that seemed interesting to report back to Sam and Tucker for the show.

A body suddenly stood before him, blocking his path along the street. Danny lifted his gaze to the man standing in front of him, who dressed in a neat black suit. He started to step around the man when he suddenly grabbed Danny by the chin. Dark blue eyes narrowed in a critical fashion as they seemingly scanned over every inch of Danny's face.


	5. Chapter 5

"Yes, I shall be returning to the office at once."

Danny frowned, as best he could with the hand practically squishing his face, at the man, who spoke on a cell phone after his careful examination of Danny's face. He yanked out the earplugs and stuffed his music player back into his bag. "You're hurting me," Danny pointed out bluntly with annoyance seeping into his blue eyes. He debated if now would be a good time to start screaming and perhaps driving the man away before the man could do whatever it was he had in mind. But Danny thought he should probably give the man the benefit of the doubt on that point. From his fancy suit and the commanding way he spoke, Danny assumed the man was wealthy and worked as some sort of business man. That, however, didn't mean the man wasn't some sort of creep though.

The man turned his dark blue eyes back onto Danny as he slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Right." When the man released his hold on his face, Danny reached up to rub at his sore jaw. "Now then." The man dropped his hands onto Danny's shoulders, directing the university student toward a car parked on the street.

Danny slammed his hands on the car door, stopping the man from pushing him any farther and from opening the door. "You are aware that kidnapping is a crime, correct?" He turned his head to narrow his eyes over his shoulder at the man. "All I would have to do is shout, and people be on you like a flock of birds come to tear apart a scrap of food."

The man's eyebrow rose in surprise at that comment before a smirk slipped onto his face, and Danny was certain he didn't like the implications of it. The smirk gave the man a sort of sinister air about him. "I only wish to have a small discussion with you. However, it's a rather, ah, sensitive nature that I can't discuss out in the public."

"Perhaps you're not meaning to, but you make that sound like you have some sort seedy plans." Danny frowned severely at the man. "I'm not one to judge, but I'm not interested."

"Is your mind always in the gutter, boy?" The man returned the frown with a wrinkling of his nose.

"When a strange man comes up to me, grabs my chin, then tries to shove me in a car, it does," Danny countered. "I prefer that you take your hands off me." The man pulled his hands away from Danny and straightened his suit. Folding his arms, Danny turned around to face the man. "Now perhaps you'd like to tell me your name and why you wanted to cram me into your car." It was a fairly nice car too, black and looking rather expensive.

"Vlad Masters." The man reached into the breast pocket of his suit and retrieved a business card to show Danny.

"No way!" Danny grabbed at the card, examining it as if he could hardly believe it was real. "You own Spook Records!" He had, of course, heard the man's name plenty of times, but he had never seen what the man looked like. His wonder over meeting the Vlad Masters faded as he frowned and pointed the card at Mr. Masters. "My friend has been trying to get a hold of you. Do you know how annoying it is to promote that we're going to have Phantom as a guest on a show and then he doesn't show up?"

Mr. Masters' brow drew to the center, the gears turning in his head as he digested the question. "Ah, that little radio show." He nodded in understanding. "I'd be happy to discuss more about that in a more private setting. Unless you want passing ears to overhear." His gaze drifted around to the people around them, some of them actually taking notice of their actions while others were too self absorbed to notice those around them.

Danny's mouth pursed, knowing the man had a point. He preferred not talking too much about the radio show where too many ears could hear him. That was why he met Sam and Tucker in a secluded part of the campus where no one else even bothered to venture so that they could discuss things quietly for the show.

"All right," Danny said with some hesitation, still wary of the man's motives. What would such a big music mogul type what with him? He pulled open the door and climbed into the car, though the idea of being trapped in such a confined place with a man he didn't quite trust didn't sit well with him.

Mr. Masters walked around and climbed into the driver's seat. After he started the car, he drove off down the street, heading to parts of the downtown area with which Danny wasn't familiar. The radio remained off, leaving them in awkward silence as Danny glanced out the window, tapping his fingers on his knees.

"I didn't realize your studio was here," Danny said, his gaze sliding toward the man beside him. Everything about this meeting felt awkward to him, and he would be more than happy when he was able to get away from the man.

"It seemed like the most appropriate place for it." Mr. Masters smirked again, and Danny liked it even less seeing that smirk on his face for a second time.

"Amity Park isn't really that big of a city." Danny leaned back in the seat, trying to get comfortable, but that was difficult with the strangeness of the whole situation. Amity Park didn't really seem like the best place to set up a music studio, especially a well known one. He thought for sure that Spook Records was located out in California, or even New York. He couldn't remember hearing anything about it being in Amity Park.

"The size of the city really doesn't make a difference." Mr. Masters pulled the car into a parking garage and drove up a few levels before parking his car in his slot right near an entrance into the attached building. "Now if you'll just follow me to my office, we can speak there." Mr. Masters climbed out of the car and waited until Danny did the same before hitting the button on his keys to lock the doors with a sharp beep.

"This still feels like I'm being set up for something bad," Danny said bluntly, folding his arms protectively over his chest as he followed the man into the building.

"I assure you it's nothing bad."

"That's usually what the psychopath killer says before he slices open the victim and plays their guts," Danny said dryly with a sour glare at the man.

Mr. Masters arched his eyebrow in return. "What kind of things do you watch?" His nose wrinkled with a hint of mild disgust.

"Horror films mostly." Danny shrugged. "My friends and I enjoy them. They have this great thing during the summer where they broadcast the old black and white ones on the side of a building. We bring snacks and sit on a picnic blanket to watch them. It's a lot of fun."

Mr. Masters merely shook his head as he lead the way down the hall to his office. It was a fairly nice office with plenty of space. There was a large desk that Mr. Masters no doubt sat behind and tried to look intimidating, or whatever music agent type men did. There was a set of twin bookcases to either side of a wide screen television with the speakers built into the lower section of the bookcases. The shelves were lined with what looked like old vinyl records. Album awards were nailed up around the office, and there was even a small bar area where Mr. Masters could share a drink with clients, perhaps after they signed a big record contract with him.

"Okay," Danny said slowly, drawing his gaze away from wandering around the room and back to Mr. Masters. "Are we allowed to talk now?"

"Indeed." Mr. Masters poured himself a drink in a short glass with ice. Then he glanced Danny's way. "Want anything?"

Danny shook his head. "No, I just want to get this over with and go. I still have to meet my friends to discuss the show tonight."

"Ah, yes." Mr. Masters nodded as he walked over to his desk. "Your show." He took a sip of his drink then set it down on the desk. "Oh, do sit if you like." He gestured to the chairs in front of his desks.

Danny hesitated before walking over to sit down in one of the leather seats that was actually quite comfy. "What about my show?"

"I do apologize that Phantom has yet to make his appearance on it." Mr. Masters laced his fingers together, resting his hands on his desk. "I assure you I was not making agreements to have him on your show just to silence you from asking. I intended for him to appear, but, well, therein lies the problem."

"What problem?" Danny's brow creased, wishing the man would simply come out and say what it was.

"Sir, I've tried locating him at least a thousand different ways, but so far, Phantom is still missing," said a woman as she entered the office and strode up to the desk without even noticing Danny's presence. She was of average height with curves that would probably make Paulina jealous. Her ebony hair spilled down her back side, falling to just past her waist, and the darkness of her skin made her look like some exotic beauty.

"Phantom's missing?" Danny shouted, shock jolting his system.

"It would appear that way," Mr. Masters said grimly.

"You should have told me you were with someone." The woman glanced over her shoulder, her aqua colored eyes surveying him with a quick glance over. Or rather, a single eye looked him over as her ebony hair hid half her face. Then she snapped her head back around to the man behind the desk, her hair twirling about her body from the swift action. "You're kidding with this, aren't you, Sir?" Whatever the question referred to, the woman didn't sound very happy.

"You know I hardly ever kid," Mr. Masters answered, and Danny frowned as his gaze drifted back and forth between man and woman.

"It'll never work, and I think you're crazy." The woman folded her arms.

"Yeah, you're having nice conversation there. But could you maybe stop treating me like I'm not here?" Danny narrowed his eyes at the pair. "What exactly is this about Phantom being missing?"

"Get the team ready, if you will, Desiree."

"Right away, Sir." Desiree strolled toward the exit of the office. "Though I expect a raise for putting with this."

Danny watched the door close behind the woman before he turned back around in his seat and raised an eyebrow at Mr. Masters. "What exactly is going on?"

Mr. Masters twisted a pen in his hands. "Has anyone ever toward you that you have an uncanny resemblance to Phantom?"

Danny's brow knitted in the middle as he stared with zero amusement in his eyes. "You must be one seriously crazed up fruit loop if you think Phantom and I look anything alike." He stood up, preparing to leave, but Mr. Masters got up and hurried around his desk.

"Just let my team do a quick makeover," Mr. Masters said as he placed his hands on Danny's shoulders.

"Okay. Now I understand her reaction." Danny pointed a thumb over his shoulder toward the office door. "You can't really think you can replace Phantom with me."

"We've been looking for Phantom ever since the first time he skipped out on an appearance," Mr. Masters explained, his mouth drawing into a thin line of displeasure. From the frustration in his dark blue eyes, it was clear that he didn't appreciate his young star vanishing on him. "I've been rearranging appearances and making excuses for failures to show up at all. We've kept the secret well covered up, but eventually people are going to start wondering _why_ Phantom hasn't appeared publicly in a month. Imagine the disappointment of all his fans when they show up to his next concert here in Amity Park, and Phantom doesn't perform."

"And that's my problem?" Danny snorted.

"Many others would be more than happy for the chance to experience fame like this." Mr. Masters eyed him like he was trying to seek a weak point that might make Danny agree to participate in this ridiculous scheme. "You would be paid, of course, for your time and cooperation."

"That's wonderful," Danny said with sarcasm seeping into his voice. "I may not make a huge amount of money, but I'm quite satisfied with my job as a radio show personality. And if I was really looking to stand in the spotlight, I wouldn't be doing that under a false identity."

"And you would still be acting under a false identity. You would just be doing it on a grander scale."

Danny shook his head as he lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "I happen to like my life as it is. I like attending my classes and working hard on my assignments. Sorry to disappoint you, but not everyone can be swayed by fame and fortune."

"I'm sure there's something that might draw your interest."

"Highly unlikely." Danny folded his arms as their gazes locked in a stare down. Mr. Masters crossed an arm over his chest as he held a hand to his chin. The time stretched on slowly, and Danny swallowed nervously, wondering what was going through the man's mind.

"As I recall, university dormitories aren't always the best," Mr. Masters said, his eyes narrowing slightly to gauge Danny's reaction. "Phantom has an apartment not too far from Amity Park University. It certainly wouldn't inconvenience you in any way to live there, and you wouldn't have to worry about rent, as I'm sure is another area of concern for any college student. You'd basically be paid to live in a nice, big, spacious apartment that's fully furnished."

Danny opened his mouth to refuse, but the word caught in his throat. He could have blissfully peaceful mornings where his jerk of a roommate wouldn't wake him up at the crack of dawn with the noise he called drumming? He wouldn't have to worry about rent which meant he could put his money toward other necessities like actually having food in his apartment other than ramen? It was more tempting than anything else he thought Mr. Masters might try to use against him.

"I really doubt this will work," Danny said, mentally kicking himself for the decision his brain chose. "I'll agree to help you, but," he held up a finger and glared at Mr. Masters, "whatever Phantom things you have planned need to work with _my_ schedule. I don't want to skip out on classes or fall behind and end up failing. And I need to be able make it to my show. I can't mysteriously disappear, and that would definitely bring up too many questions with my friends. I'm assuming you prefer I not tell anyone about this whole arrangement."

"That would be much appreciated." Mr. Masters bowed his head slightly. "We can hammer out the finer details of scheduling, but first," he snapped his fingers and the doors to his office opened, "time to see how you look as Phantom."

Danny glanced over his shoulder at the group of people that entered the office. As they surrounded him, he began to think that he, perhaps, made the wrong choice.


	6. Chapter 6

"Okay! Enough! Stop!" Danny shouted, but the women holding him down hardly paid attention to his protests.

"Hold still or I'll jab your eye out," snapped the woman with short pink hair.

Danny's jaw clenched tightly as he tried to cringe away, but the other women had a tight hold on his head, making it impossible for him to move even an inch. The finger came closer and closer to his eye, and Danny tried desperately to blink but was unable to as his eye was held open. He barely felt the touch to his eye before the women finally released their hold on him and he wanted to drop to his knees after the whole ordeal.

"Oh, you're such a little baby," the pink haired woman said, rolling her dark brown eyes. "Haven't you ever worn contacts before?"

Danny blinked several times, trying to adjust to the strangeness of the contacts forced upon him. "I have them, but I never wear them." He rubbed at one eye in irritation. "I don't really like things coming that close to my eyes." The world was still a little blurry, and he turned his frown onto the woman, who was three inches shorter than he. "Can I at least wear my glasses so that everyone's not blobs of colors to me?"

"How fast do you think we can get a prescription of green colored contact lenses for him?" Mr. Masters asked, and once he was given his glasses back, Danny was able to see him much clearer as the man held a hand to his bearded chin and gave his secretary a curious look.

Desiree made a note on the clipboard she held with a shake of her head. "We'll have them before tomorrow."

"Excellent," Mr. Masters said, nodding his head. "Excellent. Now what do you think of our Phantom replacement?"

When both of them turned their gaze upon him, Danny swallowed nervously. He felt very out of his element in the new style of clothing that was far different what he normally wore. His jeans and NASA shirt with his maroon hooded sweatshirt were dumped in a pile on one of the chairs before Mr. Masters' desk. His shoes were worn out, and he was actually surprised that the soles hadn't started to wear away or fall off yet considering how much use he got out of them wandering all over campus each day, and they were about five years old now.

Now he was dressed in nice, hip hugging black slacks and a black button up collared shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The shiny black shoes felt awkward on his feet. The white necktie was loosely done, and the white vest was left open. His nose wrinkled at white polish on his nails that he didn't manage to escape the women adding after they yanked the fingerless white gloves onto his hands. There was no mirror in the office, so he couldn't see how he looked with the hair. But if they did everything to match Phantom, the white wig would be done in the sort of faux hawk style that Phantom was always seen wearing. He probably looked ridiculous with that style of hair.

"Well, he does look like Phantom," Desiree said after her aqua colored eye gave Danny a quick once over that made him shift uncomfortably under her gaze. "But the question remains if he can actually pull off _being_ Phantom."

"We can fix him with an earwig for interviews and feed the answers to him," Mr. Masters suggested.

"But if he acts like a stuttering, rambling idiot, people are going to wonder what's up. He needs the right Phantom attitude." Desiree set her clipboard down on the desk and strode up to where Danny stood, and he quickly took one step back with a gulp. "See?" She turned halfway to stare at Vlad. "That right there proves that he can't do this. Phantom doesn't back away like he's scared of people."

Danny's brow furrowed when Mr. Masters coughed into his hand though it didn't hide a tiny smirk that slipped onto his face. "I'm not scared of people," he argued with a frown drawing across his face. "I'm just not used to someone," he waved a hand at Desiree and swallowed thickly, "so beautiful approaching me." That wasn't entirely true since Paulina came up and talked to him and she was the prettiest woman at his college. But there was something rather imposing about the presence that radiated from Desiree.

"Aren't you sweet?" Desiree pinched his cheek in a grip that hurt. "But you better learn not to act like you're terrified of women since you're going to be interviewed by some women. Not to mention all the lovely fan girls that will want pictures and autographs. And I hope you know how to pose since you'll need to do some photo shoots."

"She is right about that," Mr. Masters agreed with a nod. "It's not enough for you to _look_ like Phantom. You have to be able to act like him too if we're going to pull this off."

"But you're still going to be looking for him, right?" Danny rubbed at his cheek, which still felt a touch colder than usual. He eyed Desiree with a curious furrowing of his brow. "You're not planning on using me as a permanent replacement, right? Because I can tell you right now, I'm not willing to do this forever."

"Of course." Desiree patted him on the shoulder. "This is just temporary. We'll still be searching everywhere to find Phantom. But until then, we're going to need to prep you on how to properly act as Phantom."

"Right," Danny said slowly as he frowned at the woman. "You," he narrowed his eyes, "wouldn't happen to be a ghost, would you?"

The team that worked on turning him from plain old Danny Fenton into rock star Phantom gasped, pausing as they packed away their supplies or replaced clothing onto hangers to put on the rack with the other clothes that Phantom apparently wore. Danny glanced over his shoulder to lift a curious eyebrow at them then began to wonder if he shouldn't have said anything. If they didn't know that Desiree was a ghost, Danny doubted she would want him to out her like that.

"Oh, this kid is a sharp one." Desiree smirked as she gazed appraisingly at him. "What gave me away?"

"Your touch is too cold." Danny let his gaze run over her body from top to bottom and up again. "Though I have to admit, I've never seen a ghost that's perfected a human disguise as well as you have. The ghost that recently showed up at our counseling offices comes pretty close, but she still has pretty big tells that she's a ghost."

"You pay a great deal of attention to ghosts then?" Desiree's visible eyebrow lifted as she stared at him.

"Well," Danny shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck, "it's hard not to be a little curious about ghosts when you've lived in a town that's pretty much filled with ghosts all your life."

"How cute. He blushes." Desiree smirked before she walked back over to the desk to pick up her clipboard. "I'll start getting things prepared. You don't have plans tomorrow, right?" She glanced back Danny's way. "We can set up an interview or two for you tomorrow."

"Uh, no, I should be free tomorrow." Danny bobbed his head. "I can probably get all my homework finished before then, so that shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience."

"Good." Desiree strode toward the door of the office and walked right through it without bothering to act human and open it.

"I didn't just out her, did I?" Danny winced as he chewed on his lip.

Mr. Masters shook his head. "No, everyone that works here is well aware that she's a ghost. Though most of my clients remain oblivious to that fact, so if you are ever around them, if you could," he tapped a finger to his mouth, "keep silent about that fact, it would be appreciated."

"Oh, right! Sure!" Danny bobbed his head a few times then he blinked. "Is that why you said Amity Park seemed appropriate for setting up your studio?"

"Something like that." A smirk tugged at the corner of Mr. Masters' mouth. "Now," he picked up something from his desk, "this is the address to Phantom's apartment and the key." He handed the slip of paper and key over to Danny. "And remember, this must be kept secret, so you can't invite _anyone_ over to visit."

Danny glanced over the address on the slip of paper before turning a dull stare onto the man. "You only see me some irresponsible college student only looking to party, don't you?"

"I'm just being cautious." Mr. Masters folding his arms behind his back as he returned the dull stare. "You're free to go for today, but we'll need you here around seven tomorrow morning."

"Seven?" Danny gawked at him.

"Yes. We'll need plenty of time to prep you to look like Phantom then we'll have to practice with you to help you act more like him for the interviews later."

Danny sighed tiredly as he slouched his shoulders. "Great. As if my life wasn't already hectic enough just with classes and running the radio show."

"Radio show?" asked a woman with short twisted spiky hair and a nose ring.

"Yes, ladies." Mr. Masters dropped his hands onto Danny's shoulders, spinning him around to face the team that gave him the makeover. "This is the famous little Badger from that midnight radio show."

"Hey!" Danny shouted in protest, snapping a glare onto the man. "It's just Badger. There's nothing _little_ about me."

"Really?" The woman with her long red hair tied back in a braid that reached to her waist smirked suggestively at him.

Danny gulped at her response. "Uh, that's not, um-"

"I always wondered who the mysterious Badger was," said the pink haired woman. "Who knew it would be Phantom's long lost twin?"

"Now, ladies," Mr. Masters gave them a stern look, "as with the secret of Phantom's disappearance, you must keep this man's identity as little Badger a secret as well."

"Okay, seriously." Danny frowned at the record producer. "It's just Badger."

"Right, right." Mr. Masters nodded, though he didn't seem to really listen to Danny's complaint. "Let's give him some privacy to change back into his regular clothes. Now shall we?"

"Aw!" whined the red haired woman as she pushed the rack of clothes toward the door that Mr. Masters held open. The spiky haired woman followed after her, lugging a large kit that kept their makeup and other tools of the trade.

"Don't forget to take out the contacts before you leave," said the pink haired woman as she placed a contacts holder in his hand. Then she pulled off the white wig and ruffled up his raven locks with a grin before she skipped out of the office with the others. Mr. Masters closed the door once Danny was alone in the office.

With a sigh, Danny walked over to the chair where his clothes were. Was this really even happening? Now that he was alone in the office without the makeup team clamoring around him or Mr. Masters and Desiree chatting about things, it all felt surreal to him. He expected any moment to hear the loud clutter of noise that was his roommate's drumming to wake him out of this odd dream. But he knew he was very much awake.

"What did I get myself into?" Danny mumbled, rubbing at his forehead. He really didn't need to add secret rock star to the list of things to complicate his life. His mouth pressed thin when he thought about the radio show. They wouldn't be able to agree to have Phantom appear on his show because it would be impossible for him to keep the secret from Tucker and Sam that way. Plus interviewing himself would simply be weird.

Shaking his head, Danny started changing back into his regular clothes. After he finished tying his shoes, he shoved the key and address into his pocket. When he grabbed his bag to sling across his chest, he noticed the contacts holder that he had set on the desk while he changed. He glanced around the room and groaned when he noticed again that there was no mirror. His nose wrinkled as he twisted the caps off the holder. He really hated contacts. After a small struggle, he managed to remove the contacts and place them in the holder that he then left on the desk.

As he shouldered his bag, Danny stepped out of the office. Desiree sat at a desk right outside the office, busily typing away on a computer. Mr. Masters waited for him, leaning against the desk with his arms folded.

"I had a guest badge made for you," Vlad said as he held out the badge. "Just flash it to the guards in the lobby, and they'll let you pass."

"That was pretty quick," Danny mumbled, blinking in surprise as he took the badge presented to him. When he looked it over, he saw that it was rather plain, basically a badge with the Spook Records logo and the word "GUEST" written in large, bold lettering. It didn't have a picture or his name to identify him, making it so that the badge could work for anyone.

Mr. Masters shrugged it off with a small roll of his shoulders. "Remember. Seven AM. Don't be late."

Danny rolled his eyes. "I got it." He stuffed the badge into his bag. "I shall be here on the dot." He saluted the man then gave a small wave to Desiree before he turned and headed toward the elevator. Once he was inside and the doors closed, he hit the button for the lobby then glanced at his watch. "Great," he muttered with a sigh. "I'm barely going to be able to meet Sam and Tuck before they have to head off to class." He raked a hand through his hair as he tried to think of excuses to explain why he was late to meet them.


	7. Chapter 7

Danny sighed as he pulled the headset off and set it on the console. The two hour program felt even longer tonight, and he suspected that was in part from taking calls in which the people asked about when Phantom would appear on the show. The other part was his excitement of being able to pack up his things and move out of that apartment with his frustrating roommate. The key to Phantom's apartment felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket, waiting for him to finally go over there and see in what sort of place the famous Phantom lived.

"It's amazing the sort of things you find out," Tucker said, chuckling as he leaned against the console. "How do you find out everything? Got some secret ghostly contacts?"

Danny shrugged. "Not all of them are bad. Unless we're talking about those twins that hang out in the northern section of campus." A cold shudder ran through him, and he halfway feared that simply mentioning them might draw the pair of ghosts over to the studio. He only passed by that part of the campus once, and simply catching a glimpse of them was enough to scare him away from ever cutting through that area again.

"Please don't mention them." Tucker clapped his hands over his ears with a terrified look in his green eyes. "It's bad enough I have classes around there. I like to pretend they don't exist."

"Even I'm not too keen on their presence," Sam said as she entered the studio. "There's just something-" She shivered, and that was all that was needed to get her point across to the two men. Danny doubted there was anyone at their college that went anywhere near the twin ghosts, unless it was another ghost. "I'm actually surprised that we've gotten some pictures for the contest that are actually good. I really liked the one with Paulina and Dash smearing ice cream on each other's faces. It almost makes them seem like they aren't completely snobby A list bullies."

"It's surprising that they can actually be nice," Danny agreed with a chuckle. Then he sighed as he dropped his chin in his hand. "But I wonder if that niceness from today will stick."

"Dash and Paulina being nice? I'd have to be there to believe it." Sam's mouth pursed as she glanced Danny over, her violet gaze settling on his hand. "Since when do you paint your nails?"

Danny blinked and dropped his gaze to his other hand resting on the console. After changing back into his regular clothes, he had forgotten that the makeup women painted his nails white. "Uh," he said, fumbling for an excuse to explain the oddity. "Paulina." He glanced up at Sam to gauge her reaction to that answer. "She got bored while we were hanging around downtown to take pictures for the contest, after she roped me into it, and decided to paint my nails for fun."

"And you let her?" Tucker gaped at him in surprise.

"It seemed like a small price to pay to keep on their good side for the day." Danny grabbed his books and started packing them away into his bag. He still had a few things to finish up for Monday, and with whatever Mr. Masters had planned for tomorrow, he wanted to be certain that he had everything finished before morning.

"I still can't believe you actually agreed to take pictures for her." Sam frowned darkly, and Danny sighed internally, knowing how much Sam and Paulina failed to get along. "Isn't that kind of cheating for the contest?"

"In what way?" Danny turned a curious look her way as he stood and pulled his bag on across his chest. "No one knows that I'm Badger except the two of you." He felt like groaning but resisted it when he remembered that Lancer, Mr. Masters, Desiree, and the three makeup women now knew his secret too. "And anyway, all I did was take the pictures. It's up to the people voting, which I'm not one of, to decide whether or not that picture is good enough to win the contest."

"He does make a convincing point there," Tucker said then shrank behind Danny when Sam glared at him.

"I guess you _did_ think it out," Sam grumbled, clearly not happy having to allow Paulina's entry into the contest.

"Yup." Danny threw his arms over his friends' shoulders. "Now, shall we get out of here and enjoy the rest of our Saturday night?"

"Well, technically, it's Sunday morning now," Tucker pointed out as they headed for the door out of the studio.

"Whatever. Are we going to do anything?" Danny glanced expectantly between his friends.

"I don't know. I have a lot of homework left to do," Tucker said.

Sam rolled her eyes. "That's because you get lazy and wait until the last minute to do it all."

"What? Hey!" Tucker pouted back at her. "I still have a whole day left to finish it. That's not waiting until the last minute."

"So Tucker's out. What about you, Sam?" Danny turned his gaze onto his other friend. As much as he wanted to head back to his apartment and get his stuff, he knew it would seem suspicious if he didn't at least act like he wanted to hang out and do something after their Saturday show like usual.

"I just want to get some sleep," Sam admitted then cover her mouth with a hand as she yawned widely. "I spent most of the day trying to get in contact with Phantom's manager. No luck there." Her mouth pulled downward, and she looked _very_ unhappy with that fact. "I think he's actually trying to avoid me."

A nervous laugh tried to bubble its way out of him at the mention of Phantom and his manager. Danny knew exactly why they were unable to get Phantom to appear on their show now, but he couldn't say anything about it to his friends. He realized it in that moment how much agreeing to Mr. Masters' offer was going to suck. How was he supposed to keep up the lies to his friends? Sam and Tucker's relationship was about the only secret between them. Until now.

"Maybe he's just super busy." Danny shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. "You know, Phantom's not his _only_ client. He has a lot of other musicians and bands to manage with different appearances to balance out and stuff."

"And now you're defending him?" Sam's brow furrowed as her violet eyes flicked over him.

"I'm just saying that you can't get angry at him for having several acts to keep track of. It's possible that he simply hasn't gotten around to calling you back yet."

"Well, you two are having a fun debate," Tucker cut in. "I'm going to head off now." He waved to them as he turned down another path that headed toward his apartment.

After waving to Tucker, Sam turned on Danny, folding her arms as she frowned, purple painted lips thinning. "Just because he's a big superstar doesn't mean he should start ignoring the little guys. The fans are the ones that made him such a success. If he starts ignoring them and treating them like trash, they're going to turn on him, and he's going to fall hard from his high horse."

"Sam, when I asked if you wanted to do something tonight, I didn't mean get into a debate." Danny sighed tiredly as he hung his head. "As for Phantom, I'm sure he'll come on the show. Just have some patience."

"If you say so," Sam muttered, not sounding very convinced. "I'll see you tomorrow." She gave him a wave before heading off to her own apartment.

Danny watched her go then sighed when she was out of sight. He hadn't even posed as Phantom for the first time in public and already he was feeling that the whole thing was going to provide him with plenty of headaches.

"You seem like you have something on your mind."

Danny nearly jumped at the sudden voice in his ear. When he glanced to the side, he spotted the floating little green ghost, who had his hands on what could be considers his hips. It was really hard to tell with his tiny blob of a body. "What are you doing here, Skulker?" Danny asked as he poked at the ghost with one finger.

"Don't do that!" Skulker smacked at the finger as his cheeks turned a darker shade of green.

Danny grinned before he turned down the path that was the shortest route to his apartment. "I haven't seen you around in a while."

"I was on my greatest hunt yet!" Skulker said, excitement entering his voice as he spoke. "A ferocious dragon-"

"There are dragons?" Danny lifted his brows in surprise. "Was there a unicorn as well?"

"Don't be silly, whelp," Skulker chided. He floated over to Danny and took a seat upon his shoulder.

"A dragon doesn't exactly sound like you're kind of thing though." Danny glanced at him curiously as they arrived at his apartment. "You know, the whole one of a kind thing. Unless there's only one dragon?"

"Ha! Only one dragon." Skulker laughed. "No, the dragon was merely guarding the treasure."

"And did you get it?" Danny climbed the stairs to his apartment.

Skulker was silent for a moment. Then he folded his arms and looked away as he grumbled, "No."

"Ah, maybe next time then." Danny smirked a little as he unlocked the door to his apartment. Skulker liked to tell him stories of his latest adventures in hunting, but his success was about even with his failures. Once inside his apartment, Danny took a glance around and was relieved that his roommate wasn't present, or at least awake. He crossed the apartment and slipped into his room. "So what exactly was the treasure?"

Skulker left his perch on Danny's shoulder and floated over to sit on the desk. "It's said to give the wearer infinite power." He was practically drooling ectoplasm onto the desk at the thought of acquiring that unique treasure to add to his collection.

Danny nodded, only half listening as he grabbed his stuff and packed it all up. He was thankful that he didn't actually have a huge amount of possessions in his room. His laptop fit nicely into his bag that he carried around with him pretty much everywhere. The rest of his things were mostly clothes and his school books. Anything that he didn't need for school, he left at home with his parents. "What a shame that you weren't able to get it."

"Yes," Skulker agreed gravely. "I shall have to think of a way to outsmart and out power that dragon for my next attempt at that treasure." He blinked, red eyes surveying what the human was doing. "Are you leaving?" He sounded surprised and baffled at this development.

"Yup." Danny grinned widely. "I found a much better place to live for the remainder of the school year."

"That roommate still giving you problems?" Skulker frowned darkly as he glared in the direction of Spike's bedroom. "I could give him a little scare."

"That would only get you kicked off campus," Danny reminded as he struggled to carry all of the bags holding his things. "Principal Ishiyama might allow ghostly presences on campus, but if you start harassing students, she will have you removed faster than you can blink."

"That would be most unpleasant," Skulker agreed, following Danny from the bedroom. Skulker was only allowed on campus in his natural form as Principal Ishiyama worried that the battle suit he wore might encourage him to harm students. As a tiny blob, Skulker didn't look very threatening. "I've come to enjoy our chats. You're not bad for a meat sack."

"Thanks. I think." Danny's brow furrowed at being called a meat sack. When he was back in the hall, relief washed over him. He was finally getting away from Spike and his irritating racket in the morning. "Are you planning on following me?" He frowned as he glanced over his shoulder at Skulker.

"Oh. I see. Am I not good enough for your fancy new place?" Skulker folded his arms and turned his head. If he didn't know any better, Danny would swear that Skulker was pouting.

"That's not true." Danny sighed as he headed back down the stairs. "It's just-" His shoulders sagged slightly, and he tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. "Okay. You can come. But this is _secret_. You can't blab this to _anyone_. Got it?" He gave the ghost a firm glare.

Skulker snorted. "Who would I tell that cares about the secrets of meat sacks, whelp?"

"I'm going to take that to mean you're promising to keep it secret." Danny reached the bottom of the stairs and left the apartment building. The great thing about the radio show ending at two in the morning was that hardly anyone was out to question where he was going with all his stuff. If Dash caught him, Danny wasn't sure how he would explain things to the jock.

Danny walked toward the entrance gate of the university, lugging all of his bags as Skulker floated along beside him. The Renaissance was a fairly well known, and expensive for Amity Park, apartment complex. Danny had no trouble finding it, but when he entered the building, he got more than a few looks from the employees as he crossed the lobby toward the elevators. He almost expected to be stopped by someone, but the employees either watched him silently or merely returned to their work. Once he was in the elevator and the door closed behind him, Danny dropped his bags onto the floor and retrieved the key and note from his pocket. He hit the button for the fourteenth floor then rubbed at his aching shoulders.

"This place seems a bit out of your price range." Skulker gave him an accusing glare.

"Hence why this is secret," Danny said as he leaned against the wall of the elevator.

"Have you been up to something illegal?"

"Since when do you care about what's legal or not?" Danny lifted an eyebrow.

"Good point."

"It's nothing illegal. Uh, not really. I'm just helping out with a problem for a while."

When the elevator doors opened again, Danny picked up all his bags and carried them down the hall until he reached the door with the number one-four-zero-three on it in gold. He managed to get the key into the door and unlock it, nudging the door open with his foot. Skulker floated past him to flick on the lights as Danny kicked the door shut after him. Walking farther into the apartment, Danny gasped at the spaciousness and dumped his bags onto a couch. This was definitely going to work for him. His mouth pulled into a wide smile as he noted the wide screen television and latest gaming consoles. Tucker would love that, if Danny was allowed to even tell him about this place.

"Whelp!"

Danny glanced Skulker's way when he heard the shout. But a second later, something grabbed hold of him from the back. A leg swiped at his feet, knocking him off balance as the person slammed him into the floor. His head hit the floor hard enough to blur his vision for a moment. A body was on top of him in the next moment, holding him pinned down with the length of the forearm pressed against his throat. His mind spun, trying to keep up with what was happening, and he forced his gaze to come into focus again as he stared up at the shadowy figure over him. At that moment, he wondered all the more about what he just got himself into by agreeing to pose as Phantom.


	8. Chapter 8

"Who are you?"

Danny blinked a few times, trying to refocus his eyes enough to identify the blurry person over him demanding questions of him. The arm pressing into his throat wasn't exactly helping with his ability to breathe, especially after being winded when he hit the floor.

"Leave him alone!" Skulker shouted, and Danny felt a bit touched at his concern. Skulker didn't tend to express any care for others, beyond anything he wished to add to his collection of rare finds.

"I wouldn't try anything if I were you ghost," the person over him said, and the voice was distinctly female. Danny heard the familiar noise of the click of a safety being released.

Skulker released a low whistle. "Now that is some fine weaponry you have."

Danny rolled his eyes. When it came to tech and weapons, Skulker's interest could be piqued. Whatever the woman had must be something impressive if it stopped Skulker in his tracks. In his small form though, Danny doubted the ghost would be able to cause much damage to the woman.

"Um," Danny said, wheezing out as he struggled to adjust the arm to allow him to breathe. "Do you mind getting off me?"

The woman turned her head back toward him, and Danny was relieved to see her more clearly. She seemed to be around his age with dark skin and her black hair braided back in rows with the ends left loose in a curly mess at the base of her head. Her green eyes stared down at him, and Danny managed a weak smile, hoping she would take mercy upon him and stop crushing his throat. After a moment's hesitation, she lifted her arm and sat up with her legs straddling his waist.

"What do you think you're doing breaking in here?" the woman demanded, and her gaze slid sideways. "With a ghost pest no less." Her eyes narrowed at the green blob of a ghost checking out the blaster that she kept pointed in his direction.

"I didn't break in," Danny argued, sitting up on one arm as he rubbed at his throat with the other hand. "Mr. Masters gave me the key."

"Masters?" The woman snapped her gaze back to him as her brow creased slightly. "You know Vlad?"

"Yeah," Danny answered slowly, hesitant to find out her reaction after she knocked him down and pinned him to the floor already. "I know it's going to sound a bit crazy, but he-" Danny stopped himself as his mouth drew into a frown. Mr. Masters told him not to tell anyone about their whole arrangement of Danny standing in for the missing Phantom. His brow pinched as he looked the woman over. She dressed tight Spandex pants and a tank top with a sheen of sweat upon her smooth skin. She clearly was working out just moments before he and Skulker entered the apartment. "What exactly are you doing here?"

"I live here," the woman said, rolling her eyes as if he was stupid for asking.

"Do you mind not pointing that at me anymore?" Skulker questioned. "I'm not going to do anything to you."

"He's harmless," Danny assured the woman, who looked doubtful. He sighed when Skulker shot him a glare. "Okay. Not harmless, but he's not going to attack you. He's not interested in fighting, unless you have something one of a kind that he wants."

The woman hesitated then lowered her weapon, and Danny sighed in relief. Skulker floated over to Danny and plopped down on one of his shoulders as he folded his arms.

"I can't believe you called me harmless," Skulker grumbled, miffed at the suggestion that he was as weak as other blob ghosts that were the same size that he was.

"You know I didn't mean it like that." Danny breathed out tiredly when Skulker twisted around, refusing to look at him. Then he looked toward the woman, who was watching them with an odd expression of curiosity on her face. "I'm Danny Fenton," he said, holding out a hand to her. "And this is Skulker."

"The Ghost Zone's greatest hunter," Skulker added.

"But his success rate really isn't all that great," Danny whispered and received a sharp bite to his shoulder, courtesy of an angry Skulker.

The woman laughed, trying to hide it behind a curled hand, and Danny smiled, relaxing under her. "I'm Valerie Gray." She shook his still extended hand. "And I'm sure you're a fierce hunter," she added to Skulker, who actually flushed lightly before trying to make it look like her comment had no affect on him. "But why did Vlad let you come to Phantom's apartment?"

"Uh, well," Danny said, stumbling over his words as he searched for an explanation that didn't give away the true reason for why he was there. "What are you doing in Phantom's apartment? Mr. Masters didn't mention anything about Phantom having a roommate."

"Roommate?" Valerie's mouth pursed in consideration. "I guess you could say that too. I'm Phantom's bodyguard."

"What?" Danny gaped at her. "But you're-" He hesitated when she glared coldly at him. "You're so young! I mean, you look like you're the same age as me. But you're already a bodyguard?"

Valerie shrugged. "My dad is a security guard that works for Vlad, so I've known him for years. And I'm pretty used to ghosts, and despite that my dad doesn't like to approve of it, I've trained in fighting for years. I had a ninth degree black belt in karate when I was in my freshmen year of high school. Vlad thought that Phantom might like having someone around his age be his bodyguard, so he hired me."

"Ninth degree black belt?" Danny smirked a little. "You should have a talk with my mom. She has one too. I bet she'd be happy to spar with you some time."

Valerie nodded with a wry smirk of her own. "I might see about taking her up on that, if she wants to." Then her expression twisted back to a serious look. "You still haven't explained why you're here."

"If you're supposed to be Phantom's bodyguard," Danny said hesitantly, not wanting to give the woman cause to use some of that ninth degree black belt skill on him, again, "how is it that Phantom is missing?"

Valerie opened her mouth, anger upon her face. Then she frowned, brow creasing as she turned her head away and her shoulders slumped. "You know about that?" She sighed, closing her eyes with a troubled expression on her face. "I'm usually pretty good about keeping an eye on him. We were at a club. You know, making an appearance for the public. He slipped into the bathroom. Yeah, I know that sounds strange. What ghost goes to the bathroom? But-"

"Ghost?" Danny's eyes widened with surprise.

Valerie blinked at him. "And that's exactly why he went to the bathroom." The corner of her mouth turned upward in a sneaky smirk. "He has to keep up the appearance of being human for those not in the know. He can't spend the whole night at a club out on the dance floor and greeting people. It would look strange if anyone took the time to actually notice it. So it's not unusual that he makes a trip or two to the bathroom while we're at the club."

"Except then he didn't come out of the bathroom." Danny was still surprised to learn that Phantom was indeed a ghost. The name now seemed like a dead giveaway of his identity, but people always assumed the name and the snow white hair were just a part of his rock star persona so didn't take it too seriously that Phantom might actually be a ghost.

Valerie nodded. "It would look strange if I went into the bathroom with him. But it's also a chance for him to catch a moment of privacy in a crowded club, if no one else happens to be in there at the time." She sighed and leaned back on her arms. "I guess I got so used to him never doing anything rebellious, so I let my guard down. I stood by the door and listened, just in case anyone was in there and, you know, started trouble with him. But he's a ghost, and he doesn't need to make a sound to just slip out of the building."

Danny bobbed his head as he listened. Ghosts were primarily intangible. Having a corporeal form was something that took a great deal of training, and many ghosts never bothered to learn how to turn their bodies tangible. Lost in his thoughts about ghosts and theories about their abilities, Danny missed when Valerie leaned toward him until he noticed her face right before his own.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Danny asked, feeling rather comfortable, much like when Mr. Masters stopped him on the street and grabbed hold of his face. Valerie plucked the glasses from his face, and her mouth dropped open. "Uh." Danny's gaze darted toward Skulker, who shrugged, knowing no better than Danny what the woman was doing.

"Are you even real?" Valerie pinched at his cheeks, tugging on them as if she thought his face was a mask. "You're like-" Her eyes grew wide. "So _that's_ why you're here!"

"Why does everyone think I look like him?" Danny frowned, reaching up to rub at a cheek. "Hey!" he shouted and hurriedly fumbled to stop her from yanking up the hooded sweat shirt he wore.

"Same face, same height," Valerie mumbled, like she was ticking items off a mental list. Her hands pinched at his sides, and Danny twitched, biting down hard on his tongue to stop from laughing. "Well, Phantom's not ticklish, but you've got the same build." She lifted her gaze to him, and Danny didn't miss the hesitation in her eyes. "You didn't have a twin that died, did you?"

Danny shook his head. "The only sibling I have is my sister Jazz. I never had any other siblings."

"It's bizarre how much you look like him."

Danny shrugged, not sure how to respond to that comment. Until Mr. Masters stopped him, no one had ever told him he looked anything like Phantom. "So, uh, now that you know why I'm here," he said, glancing around with a light flush, "can I get up off the floor?"

Valerie stared at him then seemed to realize how they were position. She jumped to her feet and offered her hand out to him to help him to his feet. "Sorry about that. Vlad didn't mention anything to me about finding someone to fill in for Phantom."

"He didn't exactly tell me about Phantom having a live in bodyguard, so I think we're even there." Danny chuckled with only a little awkwardness as he scratched at the back of his head. He didn't miss Skulker's roll of his eyes.

"A little of warning still would have been nice." Valerie started to fold her arms before remembering that she still held his glasses. She held them up to her face and stared through the lens. "Your vision is horrible!" She handed the glasses back to him and rubbed at one of her eyes.

"Yeah." Danny sighed as he put his glasses back on. "And I'm not looking forward to having to wear those contacts." He shuddered simply thinking about having to put a finger close to his eyes to put the contacts in and take them out again. After a quick glance about the apartment, his gaze landed back on the woman before him. "So I'm guessing this whole apartment is only to make it seem like Phantom is human."

"And to give me a place to live." Valerie shrugged and walked over to one of the couches to sit. "I could always live with my dad, but I like the independence of living here. Phantom's usually good about not misbehaving while I catch some sleep at night. But I can also turn on a ghost shield to keep him trapped in here if I think he might sneak off." She smirked deviously.

Danny walked over to join her on the couch. "Mr. Masters sure has a lot of dealings with ghosts. Just how many people in his employ are actually ghosts?"

"A lot." Valerie's gaze drifted toward Skulker, still sitting on Danny's shoulders. "But you seem pretty comfortable with ghosts yourself."

"My parents do a lot of research about ghosts and developing technology to stop any hostile ghosts that appear. So I've heard about ghosts basically since I was born. I've also been studying them throughout my schooling. I guess it kind of runs in the family." Danny tugged at his ear, not sure why he was suddenly feeling embarrassed to admit that to someone.

"Oh." Valerie paused briefly. "Oh! You're _that_ Fenton!"

"I guess my parents' reputation precedes me." Danny's mouth twitched into a small smile before it fell. His parents weren't entirely seen in a good light in public opinion. They could come up with some crazy ideas, and his father could sometimes seem like a big goof in his excitement that led to minor miscalculations on inventions and mishaps in the field.

"It's still kind of surprising to see you treating ghosts like friends," Valerie said as she leaned back against the couch and rested her arms on the back of it. "A lot of people tolerate the existence of ghosts, others really hate that ghosts exist on our plane, but very few treat them as equal."

Danny was silent for a moment as he mulled over his response. "I guess sometimes I feel like a ghost. You know, the whole invisibility thing. I'm not very popular at school, and most people treat me like I'm not even there. Except bullies. But," he shrugged, "it's not like they're all evil. Some of them are pretty nice to talk to. I've kind of been associating with them ever since I was a child, so I guess I've always kind of seen them as equal."

"I wish more people thought like that," Valerie said with a sigh. "Oh, but never say something like that around Desiree."

"What?" Danny blinked, stunned by the warning.

"That's her ability. She grants wishes. But like genies, they usually aren't exactly what you expect. So you should be careful about what you say around her. She doesn't intentionally grant them to harm people. She doesn't really have control over it. Once she hears 'I wish,' she has to grant it."

"I'll keep that in mind when I'm around her." Danny shivered to think what might happen if he ever accidentally wished for something in front of Desiree. He was glad for the warning because he wouldn't want to force her to grant some silly wish that slipped out on a whim. "I guess being Phantom's bodyguard, you know him pretty well, huh?"

Valerie tilted her head then nodded. "Yeah, I guess I know him pretty well. We do spend a lot of time together, after all."

"Well, I have to know how to act like him, and I'm clearly _nothing_ like him. Any advice?" Danny gave her a hopeful look.

"Hm." Valerie pondered as she looked him over with a critical eye. "Well, in front of the camera and his fans, Phantom isn't all Mr. Nice Guy like you."

"In other words, you mean he's got a spine," Skulker put in helpfully, which gained a frown from Danny.

"Basically," Valerie agreed with a wince. "It's not like that's a bad thing," she added quickly. "But if you're going to pretend to be Phantom, you can't act like someone in the background. Phantom takes charge and commands the room. He walks about like he owns everything. He doesn't just hunch up in the corner and try to be invisible to the world."

"It's not like I _try_ to be invisible," Danny grumbled. "I used to try to get in with the popular kids at school, but I never really fit in with them. After a year or two of trying, I gave up. I realized the friends I had were better than having to pretend to be someone I'm not just to be liked and constantly having to prove myself just to stay friends with them. After that, being invisible didn't really bother me as much. It's actually pretty amazing what you can see and hear in this world when no one really takes notice of you."

"That's fine for you. But if you act like that as Phantom, people are going to know right away you're not him." Valerie stood up and grabbed hold of his hand, dragging Danny off the couch. "Come on. We'll practice. Telling you about him will only get you so far. You have to actually have some experience pretending to be him."

"You're going to laugh at me when I completely foul this up, aren't you?" Danny sighed as he hung his head.

"I can't promise that I won't." Valerie wore a tiny smirk. "You mentioned bullies earlier, right?" She frowned when Danny nodded. "I could teach you a few moves. You know, to protect yourself. If you want."

"I'm not really much of a fighter," Danny admitted, though he felt relief that they were getting along so well. He didn't think this whole facade would work all that well if his "bodyguard" treated him something like the bullies at school. "But I guess it wouldn't hurt to learn a few things to take care of myself."

"Great. Then let's get started." Valerie took command, instructing Danny how to act around interviewers and fans. She helped him figure out how to stand and walk and sit like Phantom. Skulker sat on the couch and snickered whenever Valerie corrected Danny on how to speak like Phantom. The night felt longer than usual, and Danny was more than happy to crawl into bed, curl up, and fall asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Danny snuggled happily into the fluffy pillows, enjoying the peace of the morning that wasn't soon to be interrupted by the irritating racket of Spike's drumming. He could finally get a good night's sleep and wake up on his own time, and he decided he could definitely get used to sleeping in a nice cushy, warm bed like this one. Then a blast of chill hit his skin as the thick covers were ripped away from him.

"Hey!" Danny shouted in protest as he sat up quickly, scrambling to recover the blankets.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty." Valerie stood at the foot of the bed, holding the blankets well out of Danny's reach. One corner of her mouth stretched upward in a smirk. Her workout clothes were gone, replaced by a soft yellow V-neck sweater over a white collared shirt, of which she left the top two buttons undone, and a pair of dark pants.

Danny slowly lowered his gaze and came to the embarrassing realization that he sat there in front of her in nothing but his boxers. He quickly scrambled out of bed and ripped one of the blankets from her hand to cover up his body. "Do you always just barge in to someone's room?" he demanded, flushing over the fact that she caught him in such a state.

"Normally I don't have to worry about catching the occupant with so little clothing," Valerie said as she tossed the rest of the blankets onto the bed. "Phantom doesn't really sleep after all." She turned around to face Danny as she placed her hands on her hips. "Vlad was kind enough to contact me last night. It seems he meant to do that earlier, but with everything he had to get done with arrange appearances, not to mention the other musicians that he has signed to his label, it apparently slipped his mind. Anyway, he informed me that he wanted you at his office at seven. It's my job to make sure you get there on time."

"I am capable of waking up and getting to places on time without someone's help." Danny adjusted his hold on the blanket then headed toward where he left his things last night before falling asleep. Pausing before he reached his things, Danny turned around and stared at Valerie, who lifted an eyebrow in curiosity. "Did you just call me pretty?"

Valerie rolled her eyes. "I called you sleeping beauty. You were being a pain to wake up. I think I called your name for ten minutes straight without a response."

"Oh." Danny rubbed at the back of his neck, embarrassment rising up in him again. "I guess it was just a relief not to be woken up by my roommate at the crack of dawn that I just didn't want to wake up yet."

"Well, hurry up and get dressed. I'll make up some breakfast for us. Then we can head to the office." Valerie walked toward the door of the room.

"You can cook too?" Danny asked curiously.

"I'm a girl of many talents." Valerie smiled then left him alone in the bedroom.

"Now that's a woman I can admire," Skulker said, appearing suddenly to settle on Danny's head. "Strong, independent, knows her weapons."

Danny dropped the blanket and knelt down to dig through his things for something to wear. "I'm hurt. Are you going to start spending all your time with her?"

Skulker pulled at a lock of his raven hair, making Danny yelp at the small sting of pain. "Of course not, whelp. You humans are always so sensitive." He snorted, but Danny smiled to himself, knowing Skulker would always deny that he thought of Danny as a friend.

Danny hurriedly got dressed, pulling on a pair of slightly loose jeans and a Spider-Man shirt before he yanked on a plain hooded sweatshirt. Once he was dressed, he slung his bag across his chest and left the bedroom. "Ugh," he groaned as he remembered something. "I didn't finish all of my homework." He sighed, pushing up his glasses as he rubbed at his eyes.

"Well, I'm sure you'll have time later to finish it up," Valerie said, presenting him with a plate of scrambled eggs when he entered the kitchen area of the apartment. "I'm pretty sure Vlad will go easy on you for your first day of being Phantom."

Danny breathed in the smell of freshly cooked eggs and sighed happily. "Real food!" He nearly drooled over that fact. "Do you know how long I've eaten mostly ramen noodles or some other cheap, quick to cook meal?"

"I so do not envy the life of a college student." Valerie grinned as she sat down at the table with her own plate of eggs.

Danny joined her, happy to have breakfast with a living person that didn't think he was a worthless waste of space. Eating in the cafeteria on campus wasn't all that bad since he had his privacy in his little corner to do some work, but it was lonely not sharing the meal with someone else. He shoveled a mouthful of the eggs into his mouth, and even just for simple scrambled eggs, they were very tasty.

"Where do you get your weaponry?" Skulker asked curiously as he sat on the pepper shaker in the middle of the table.

"Vlad has contacts." Valerie shrugged then took a sip of her milk. "They're ecto based for any ghostly threats. But they work well enough of living threats too. There's a stun setting, which is useful for not killing a human target."

Skulker frowned, and his red eyes narrowed as he sized up the woman. "You're not going to tell me his contact, are you?"

"How do I know you won't seek out the source and acquire some of the weapons for your own use?" Valerie countered.

For a while, they stared at each other, and Danny glanced back and forth between them, feeling a tension in the air. Then Skulker broke off from the contest and nodded his head. "You are quite right there," he agreed. "I'm sure I could find ways to add your weapons to my suit."

"You have a suit?" It was Valerie's turn to be curious.

"You didn't think he became the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter looking like that, did you?" Danny joked with a teasing grin. "Ouch!" He yanked back his hand, waving it out to the side after Skulker fired a small energy ball that struck him. Skulker might be small, but he could still strike painfully when he tried.

"You two sure get along well." Valerie snickered at their interactions. "Do you plan on following Danny around everywhere?"

"Someone has to look out for him." Skulker folded his arms and held his head high. "He'll just get himself into trouble if he doesn't have someone watching his back."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence there," Danny muttered then finished off the last bite of his breakfast. He picked up his and Valerie's plates and carried them over to the sink to wash them.

"A man who does the dishes? I could get used to that." Valerie grinned, leaning on her arm as she watched him.

"My mom would probably be very disappointed with me if I never did the dishes." Danny dried his hands off on a towel before turning around to face her. "I had a lot of chores growing up. I didn't always do them right away." He shrugged. "But living with my old roommate, if I didn't clean a dish every once and a while, I'd be eating off plates and from bowls with I don't even want to know what stuck to them. Spike wasn't exactly the dishes washing type."

Valerie snorted as she stood. "I have to question your tastes if you had a roommate named Spike." She led the way toward the door of the apartment, and Skulker floated over to sit on Danny's shoulder as he followed after the woman. "Is that his real name? Please tell me it's a nickname."

"I have no idea." Danny shook his head. "And I didn't have much of a choice for roommates. He was the only person to agree to let me be their roommate, and I don't make enough money to get my own place. We are definitely not friends though."

"I'm sure I could find some way to get back at him without it violating the school rules about ghosts on campus," Skulker said in a ponderous tone, already trying to think up ways around the rules.

"Getting the chance to stay here must be like a dream come true for you then."

Danny nodded. "I guess you could say that. The choice of roommates is definitely a vast improvement." He grinned when Valerie stopped at the door to turn back to him. She stared at him, tilting her head with a considering look in her green eyes. Then she shook her head.

"This won't work," Valerie announced bluntly, and Danny winced. "We should try to keep people from making any connection between you and Phantom. If we're seen together like this, people might start connecting the dots." She walked over to where a vase sat on one of the tables and picked it up. Tipping it over, she spilled some of the water into her hand. Then she returned to Danny and ran her fingers through his raven locks, slicking back his messy bangs. "Just one more thing." She disappeared for a moment.

"Hm, nope," Skulker said, shaking his head. "I don't think I could get used to you having your hair like that."

"Gee, thanks." Danny rolled his eyes then stared in the direction in which Valerie disappeared. In another moment, she returned with a pair of sunglasses.

"Until you get those contacts, you should wear these to hide your eyes," Valerie explained as she pulled off Danny's glasses to replace them with the sunglasses.

"You know I have terrible eyesight," Danny reminded with a frown. Now, not only was everything blurry, but the world was dark too. He would be lucky if he didn't walk right into any walls like this.

"Don't worry." Valerie tugged the hood of sweatshirt up over his head, hiding his raven locks. "I'll make sure you don't run into anything." She opened the door to the apartment and, placing a hand on his shoulder, guided him through the doorway with no problem.

Danny nodded to himself. He could do this with Valerie, and Skulker, helping him. The ghost had slipped into his hood to keep out of sight as they left the apartment so that he wouldn't be seen by anyone. When they exited the hotel, a car was waiting for them. Valerie walked ahead and opened the door for him. She slid in after him, and once the door was closed, she returned his glasses.

"See? You didn't run into any walls." Valerie smiled as Danny slipped his glasses back on and the world became clear and crisp again to him.

"Thanks." Danny's mouth pursed as he turned a thought in his head. "Some of the jocks at school probably would have taken the opportunity to make sure I did run into walls. They would have thought it was amusing."

"Sounds like they could use a little humiliation of their own," Valerie said, cracking the knuckles on one hand.

"I'm with her on this one," Skulker said, coming out of his hiding spot to sit on the lowered armrest between them.

When they reached the offices of Spook Records, they swapped glasses again. Valerie climbed out of the car first and held it open while Danny got out. Some people on the street stopped to stare at them, perhaps recognizing Valerie and therefore placing Danny as Phantom. They hurried into the building before anyone could think to approach them. Then they rode the elevator up to the floor with Mr. Masters' office, and Danny was given his glasses back again.

"That's going to be rather annoying," Danny admitted, frowning as they stepped out of the elevator.

"You could just wear the contacts all the time," Valerie suggested and led the way toward Mr. Masters' office.

"Except that my eyes are blue, and people I know would get suspicious if I started walking around with green eyes." Danny adjusted his glasses. "Besides, I like my glasses."

"And with a minute to spare," Desiree said, looking up from her desk with a wry smirk when they approached. "He's waiting on you with the makeup crew."

Valerie nodded then pushed open the door for him. Danny didn't think he could get used to having someone opening doors for him all the time. When they entered the office, Mr. Masters was standing behind his desk, leaning forward with his hands on the surface of his desk. Anger and frustration twisted upon his face as he glared at the woman sitting in the chair before him. Danny recognized those bright blue locks at once. Ember McLain was a very popular singer, and when her big hit "Remember" first came out, he could hardly go anywhere without being bombarded by people dressing like her or wearing her merchandise.

"If I knew anything, I'd tell you," Ember said as she stood. "But I haven't a clue."

"Who's the babe?" Skulker whispered into Danny's ear as he drew back the hood of his sweatshirt.

"Seriously, Skulker?" Danny stared flatly at him. "You've never heard of Ember McLain? Don't you ever get out and put the whole hunter thing to rest for a moment?"

"And you call me babe again, and I'll blast you into the other side," Ember threatened, glowering at Skulker.

"So going out on a limb, but you're a ghost?" Danny questioned as he pointed at Ember. "Though you can't really blame him for calling you a babe. You are beautiful, after all."

"Yes, I'm a ghost." Ember huffed, crossing her arms as her mouth thinned. At the compliment though, she blushed then immediately tried to recover her cool. Her style hadn't really changed that much over the years. She still dressed in black clothing with those skull boots. Stepping up close to Danny, she squinted her green eyes then twisted around toward Mr. Masters. "What did you do? Clone him?"

Mr. Masters sighed tired as he dropped back into his seat and rubbed at his forehead. "No, Ember, I didn't clone him. And if I had, I would have made sure he had the same hair and eye color as Phantom."

"Well, it seems you have a lot of work ahead of you," Ember said, brushing by Danny to the door of the office. "And I should probably head to the studio. That new album won't record itself after all." Danny bit his lip to keep from smirking when he noticed Skulker watching Ember exit the office.

"Sometimes, I wonder why I ever signed her in the first place," Mr. Masters mumbled, shaking his head. "And who is this friend you've brought along with you?" He didn't look all that pleased to see Skulker.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about him," Danny said quickly. "Skulker isn't going to spill the beans about any of this. Just think of him as a second bodyguard."

Mr. Masters narrowed his dark blue eyes at the ghost. "If he can indeed keep his silence, I'll tolerate his presence. Now," he stood and snapped a finger, drawing the attention of the makeup women who were waiting to transform Danny into Phantom, "it's time to get you ready for your first appearance."

Danny sighed, remembering how this went yesterday, but he allowed them to drag him away without complaint. Maybe this time, he would get to see how he looked dressed up like Phantom.


	10. Chapter 10

No amount of rehearsal could have prepared him for this. Danny tried to be subtle in wiping sweaty palms on his pants, which were tight and made of leather, as he sat in a cushy white chair across from the interviewer. After the makeup crew finished up their work in turning him into Phantom, Danny got a brief glance of himself in a mirror. With the white wig styled in a faux hawk and the green contacts, which still irritated him but were at least the right prescription, he had to, reluctantly, admit that he could see the resemblance between him and Phantom. They did look quite a bit alike, even sharing basically the same height and build. It actually made Danny wonder how no one else saw the similarities before, but even he was oblivious to them until now. He still felt weird dressing up like Phantom, not used to the overly tight clothing.

Their first stop once he looked properly like Phantom was to a photographer's studio to take pictures for a photo spread in a magazine, that Mr. Masters apparently pushed back for the past two weeks. The photographer, a short balding man with glasses that Danny suspected were more for decoration than to correct his eyesight, greeted them with a friendly smile, but when he thought no one was paying attention, he grumbled about stupid, temperamental superstars who couldn't even bother to make it to appearances that were scheduled a month in advanced.

"Want me to give him a good kick to the head?" Skulker asked after overhearing the photographer's commentary. "We're not on campus. I can get away with doing whatever I like without those school rules getting in the way."

"I don't think that would be a wise idea," Danny answered.

"He says that," Valerie said, checking on Danny's outfit, "but Phantom's always been pretty obedient. I dare say it's actually about time he rebelled a bit."

"Even if he knew it meant making you look bad by escaping on your watch?" Danny lifted his eyebrows curiously.

"If he hadn't done it then, he wouldn't have been able to do it at all." Valerie shrugged then patted him on the shoulder as she pushed him to take his spot in front of the camera.

They had fitted Danny with a small earwig that was virtually invisible prior to arriving at the photographer's studio. Valerie and Mr. Masters would whisper him directions during the shoot if Danny wasn't certain about what the photographer wanted him to do. Danny wasn't very comfortable standing in front of the camera and having his picture taken, but he tried to do what he did with the radio show and act like he was someone else. He was Phantom, a rock star who wasn't fearful of things like cameras and being interviewed in front of a large audience.

The photo shoot went well, but now Danny was facing an even bigger challenge. He was finding it a bit more difficult to stay in character as Phantom when his gaze would slip to the side and take in the audience watching his every move and waiting to hear his every word. How did Phantom deal with this? Danny thought he could understand wanting to escape the public eye for a while if he had to suffer this kind of pressure every day.

"It's good to see you again, Phantom," the interviewer said with a smile on her face as she brushed back a lock of blonde hair. She was rather good looking for a woman of close to fifty, who most likely had a bit of plastic surgery done over the years.

"That's Vivian Landers," Valerie whispered through the earwig.

"I know," Danny murmured back as he threw a glance toward the offstage area where Valerie stood. Mr. Masters was busy chatting on his cell phone at the moment while Desiree stood beside him. "I have watched her show once or twice."

"Really?" Valerie said with some amusement in her voice. "You're not exactly her target audience."

Danny resisted the urge to glare at her and turned his attention back to the interviewer. "It's my pleasure to be here, Vivian."

"Kiss her hand," Valerie said hurriedly.

"What?" Danny snapped, remembering to keep his voice low.

"Phantom always kisses the hand of female interviewers when he greets them," Valerie explained.

Danny held back a sigh as he took the woman's hand and brought it up to his lips. Vivian flushed darkly as she waved her papers like a fan, the light breeze tossing some of her blonde hair.

"My, my, Phantom," Vivian said breathlessly. "You're going to make me the envy of everyone in the audience if you do things like that."

"Well, I can hardly resist giving a lovely lady a kiss." Danny smiled, turning it onto the audience, which earned him some squeals and sighs from the women.

"Careful, or you might be forced to kiss everyone in the audience," Vivian said.

"You certainly wouldn't want that," Valerie said with a snicker. "I think there's a guy or five in the audience." Danny tried to ignore that comment as he focused on what Vivian was saying next.

"It's been quite a while since you made your last public appearance," Vivian said, reaching out to lay a hand on his hand as she frowned with concern. "Is everything okay with you? A lot of us were starting to worry that something serious had happened with you."

"Vlad," Valerie whispered urgently, distracting the man from his phone call, "do we have an answer for that?"

Danny almost shook his head but caught himself. Mr. Masters hadn't even thought of a response for why Phantom had disappeared from the spotlight recently? "My doctor said I needed to rest my vocal cords," he told Vivian as he reached up to rub his throat with a hand. "He said recently I was putting too much strain on them from doing so many appearances. So I took a small break from making any public appearances until my doctor said that I was in the clear to sing again."

"Oh dear!" Vivian put a hand to her mouth, looking shocked by his announcement.

"Hm, the boy can think on his feet," Mr. Masters said through the earwig, sounding rather impressed by Danny's quick thinking. "Make a note of that," he said, most likely to Desiree, "in case he stumbles over the answer in the next interview." Danny almost growled in annoyance that Mr. Masters didn't think he could remember that simple explanation.

"I can see why you decided to disappear from the public for a while," Vivian continued. "It probably wouldn't have helped your recovery to be harassed by the media."

"I certainly wouldn't have minded allowing you to interview me." Danny wore a charming smile that managed to get swoons from the audience again. "But my manager and I thought it best to keep me isolated from the public eye until we got the okay from my doctor."

"Of course." Vivian nodded with a rare serious expression upon her face. "You have an amazing talent, and I'm sure your manager wants to do everything to assure that you're in your top form before allowing you on stage again." Curiosity entered her brown eyes as she leaned closer to him. "But you surely had a few visitors during your resting time. Perhaps a special someone?" Her eyebrows lifted upward, and the whole audience seemed to hold their breath in wait for his answer.

"We shouldn't need to tell you how to answer this question, right?" Valerie asked with a touch of amusement in her voice.

"Val," Danny grumbled. He did, of course, know that as a rock star Phantom had to appear unattached to the public. Not only did it keep him available in the eyes of his female fans, but it would help to keep his personal life private.

"I'm sorry. I don't think the audience could hear that," Vivian said, and Danny jerked his head toward her with a sense of dread.

"Danny!" Valerie groaned.

"Did you just say someone's name?" 

Danny felt like he was sweating bullets as he sat there under everyone's gaze. "Vlad!" he said with maybe a little too much force. "Vlad Masters, my manager. He made a point to visit me often to see how I was doing."

"Ah, I see," Vivian said, sounding rather disappointed. It seemed everyone wanted a look into a celebrity's personal life. Danny certainly didn't envy that part of Phantom's life. "I could have sworn for a moment you said another name. Well, anyway," she moved along, deciding to overlook that small slipup with a pleasant smile, "since it sounds like you're well and healthy again, do you think you might give the audience a little performance? After being out of the spotlight for so long, I'm sure everyone's just waiting to hear you sing again." She looked to the audience, which immediately erupted in cheers and demands for him to perform for them. That was definitely another thing that didn't make Danny jealous of Phantom.

"Sure," Danny replied, seeing no way around it. If he refused, it would disappoint the audience, and they would start to wonder if his vocal cords were really okay again.

"We didn't prepare for that," Desiree said, coming through the earwig with a hint of worry in her voice. "We don't have a vocal track prepared for him to sing."

"We didn't teach him the steps to any of the dances either," Valerie reminded, not sounding very pleased.

Danny glanced their way and tried not to glare dryly at their comments. "Any song in particular you want me to sing?" he asked Vivian, playing the charming rock star again.

"Oh!" Vivian looked a little flustered as she shuffled through her papers, perhaps not expecting him to agree or ask her to pick the song. "How about your recent hit? 'Time out?'"

"As you wish." Danny bowed his head to her.

"W-Well," Vivian said, flushing again, "then why don't you prepare? And we'll go to a quick commercial break." She smiled into the camera until the light turned off to show they were no longer being filmed. "I didn't think you'd actually agree to sing." She glanced at Danny as she smoothed out her red skirt. "When Mr. Masters agreed to the appearance, he said it would only be an interview. No actual performance."

"Ah, well," Danny said, now feeling a little awkward. Had he made the wrong decision in agreeing to the performance? "I couldn't let my fans down."

Vivian nodded. "Good answer. You better go get ready for your performance then." She pointed toward the big open space on the stage where the crew were already setting up for him to sing.

Danny swallowed as he stood and walked over to the performance section of the stage. He tried to keep up the act of being calm and cool like Phantom would act, but his nerves were starting to get the better of him. What if he messed up this performance? What if everyone realized he wasn't Phantom? He didn't want to blow this whole thing for Mr. Masters or ruin Phantom's reputation. When Valerie approached him on stage, Danny felt a hundred times more nervous. She did not look pleased with him.

"Why," Valerie growled lowly when she stood in front of him, "did you say my name out loud? Are you an idiot?" She dabbed a swab into some makeup stuff that Danny really didn't know what to call it then patted it onto his face.

Danny realized it then that she was acting as a makeup woman to keep the audience from realizing her true identity as his bodyguard so that they could speak privately. "Sorry," Danny mumbled. "It slipped out. I'm not used to having someone talking in my ear."

"You better get used to it," Skulker said with little arms folded as he perched on Valerie's shoulder, near her neck where he could be hidden by the bushy, curly mess of her hair at the base of her skull.

"I guess I should be happy I don't have him chatting in my ear too," Danny said with a dry glare at the ghost.

"You can't let that happen again. I especially don't want people getting it in their heads that I'm involved with Phantom." Valerie's green eyes narrowed at him.

"Have you ever wanted to be in a relationship with Phantom?" Danny asked, his curiosity slipping out before he could stop it.

Valerie stared at him for a moment, stunned by the question. "We have a professional relationship. Mostly. I think we're sort of friends too. But no, in the romantic sense, it's never come up between us."

"Oh." Danny wasn't sure what else to say to that response.

"We didn't prepare for you to actually sing for the audience, so we don't have anything ready," Valerie explained, concern entering her voice as she frowned at him.

"Yeah, I heard that part." Danny tapped his ear as a tiny smirk twisted upon his lips. "Don't worry. I'll be fine." He hoped, at least.

"Give the whelp a chance. He might surprise you." Skulker smirked secretively, and Danny felt the color drain from his face at that expression.

"I sure hope you can sing, or this is going to blow up in our faces spectacularly." Valerie gave him one last pat on the nose with the powdery substance then headed off stage.

Vivian came to stand beside him, checking that her hair was as perfect as always. "Was that the mystery girl you let slip earlier?" She tossed him a glance with a smirk.

"She was only a makeup girl," Danny answered, trying not to be too eager to reject the idea.

Vivian nodded but didn't look convinced. She turned her attention to the camera man as he counted down, using his fingers. He pointed at them when he hit one, and the light on the camera switched on. "Welcome back," Vivian said, smiling warmly into the camera. "Our guest today, Phantom, has agreed to perform his new hit 'Time out' for us. So here he is." She clapped her hands as she left the stage to him, and the audience followed suit, filling the studio with loud applause, which didn't help with Danny's nerves.

The sound crew waited until the audience fell silent then turned on the music for the song. Danny gulped as he glanced around at the crowd, squeezing the microphone in his hand. He heard this song at least a hundred times now after playing it on his radio program and hearing it all over campus. When he heard the right point, he opened his mouth and suffered a terrifying moment that he would lose his voice.

"Just another night," Danny sang, the tightness in his chest loosening as the words spilled easily from his lips. "Thinking I'm all alone."

"Wow," Desiree breathed out in wonder, listening to Danny sing. "I can't believe he sounds exactly like Phantom."

"It was his singing that caught my attention in the first place," Mr. Masters informed her with smugness in his voice, and Danny tried not to flush at the realization that he had sung out loud on a busy street. "The fact that he looked exactly like Phantom too was just icing on the cake."

Danny blocked out their offstage conversation before it distracted him from the song. Relief filled him to know that no one suspected he wasn't the real Phantom. He was glad now, too, that he not only had most of Phantom's songs memorized but also the dances that went with the songs. He hated to say he was a fan boy, like Dash, but he had followed Phantom career from the beginning. At least now, looking like an obsessive fan boy was paying off for him.


	11. Chapter 11

A slice of toast hung from his mouth as he quickly added up the final pictures to the website and opened the voting for people to pick which one they liked best. Mr. Lancer's warning apparently didn't get to be unnecessary worry, though Danny kind of wished it was. He received one set of pictures that came in from an unknown e-mail address late last night, that Tucker was tracking back to the source so that they knew who was to blame for them. The pictures were clearly photo manipulated, and rather poorly, which only led them to believe that whoever did it wasn't very skilled with the program. The pictures were meant to show Dash off in the buff but the work was sloppy. The body type was clearly wrong, not nearly as muscular or broad shouldered as Dash, and the skin tone from the pictures of Dash's head and the body used in the pictures were greatly different.

Danny was pissed when he saw the pictures. Not that he had any reason to defend the jock, or even like him all that much, but he wasn't jerk enough to stoop low enough to purposely do something to embarrass Dash. Being that Dash was the star of their university's football team, therefore a big name in town, Danny thought the contest would draw a lot of interest from everyone. Until last night, he thought people were having fun taking pictures of and sometimes with Dash to enter. It didn't seem like anyone was going to be a jerk and try to enter something offensive like fake nude pictures of the jock.

"If you keep glaring like that, your face might stick that way," Valerie warned before she shoveled a forkful of scrambled eggs into her mouth.

"I can attest to that," Skulker said with a sage nod. "I knew of a ghost once that had his face twisted up for so long while waiting to scare a human that it ended up getting stuck that way. He hasn't been able to change his face in twenty years."

Danny blinked at the blob of a ghost. As ridiculous as it sounded, Skulker stated it in such a serious tone that Danny was inclined to believe it. Danny pulled the toast from his mouth with a sigh. "Sorry. I guess I'm still kind of frustrated that someone thought they could get away with submitting those pictures."

"A man of many talents," Valerie said, staring at Danny.

After the interview with Vivian, Valerie tagged along with him back to campus when it was time for him to put on his midnight to two AM radio show. Valerie remained outside the studio to avoid Sam and Tucker questioning how Danny knew her or why she was there. At first, Danny felt hesitant about her knowing that he was the Badger, but since they already had another identity of his to keep secret, he decided Valerie could be trusted.

"You can sing and dance just as well as Phantom. You're a famous, though highly secretive, radio show host. Any other secret identities I should know about?"

"Nope." Danny shook his head, but a small smirk of amusement slipped onto his face. "I think that's all."

"Well, I'm glad you have integrity. I'm sure there are other people out there that would have been more than happy to post poorly edited nude pictures of someone they hate on the internet for all the world to see." Valerie stood up and carried her plate over to the sink to clean.

"What worries me is that this person doesn't have to rely on my contest to humiliate Dash." Danny closed up his laptop then stuffed it into his bag. "If they have the knowhow, they could set up a website and post the pictures up there." That was the reason he was having Tucker track the pictures back to their source so that they could identify the one that sent them and inform someone with authority of the harassment, assuming anything could be done about it. As much as he wanted to immediately delete the photographs, he kept the e-mail as evidence.

"You are, perhaps, far nobler than I," Skulker said with a certain amount of respect in his voice as Danny hurried to finish his breakfast then joined Valerie at the sink to clean his dishes. "If it were someone I detested, I would not hold back."

"Dash can be a jerk, and he certainly never treated me all that well, but I still believe there are lines that don't need to be crossed." Danny shrugged as he grabbed his bag and slung it across his chest. "Dash never stooped _that_ low in the way he treated me. I see no reason to be the one to cross that line. If I wanted to get back at Dash, I wouldn't go for _that_ kind of public humiliation." He also had Lancer's warning hanging over his head. He didn't want his teacher disappointed in him for making a dumb decision.

"Such a charmer, aren't you?" Valerie followed Danny to the door of the apartment. She dressed casually today in jeans and a long sleeved white shirt over which she wore a zip up yellow fleece vest. "How do you not have the ladies eating out of the palm of your hand?"

"The world's a great mystery." Danny shrugged. He paused when Valerie joined him out in the hall. "You're going to follow me around everywhere?" He frowned, not entirely sure he liked this arrangement. Hanging out with Valerie was fun. He enjoyed talking with her. But having her around at every turn might become overbearing rather quickly.

"It sort of comes with the job." Valerie led the way down the hall to the elevator, and Skulker followed suit. "You're my responsibility for as long as you fill the role, so it's my job to keep an eye on you and make sure nothing happens to you." She hit the down button then turned around to face Danny. "Plus Vlad will contact me with any appearances that you're needed for, so I'll need to be around you to give you the heads up if we need to leave to prepare for that." The elevator doors opened, and their group of three entered. "But don't worry. I won't go into your classes, and I'll stay back when you hang out with friends."

Danny shook his head as he leaned back against the elevator wall. "We'll need a story."

"What?" Valerie blinked at him.

"An explanation for why you're hanging around me," Danny explained as he stared at the numbers over the elevator doors. "People are going to wonder if a beautiful woman starts hanging around me all the time. Who isn't my best friend Sam. So we need some way to explain your presence. I can't say you're an old friend because my friends will know that's a lie and we should stick to the same story for everyone just to make sure things don't get mixed up or if people start talking to one another and find that there's more than one story going around."

Valerie nodded. "Of course. Secrets are no foreign thing to you."

Danny glanced at her and caught the smirk tugging at one corner of her mouth. "I guess that kind of makes it easier for me to play the role of Phantom. Since I'm already so good at hiding my identity as the Badger." The elevator jerked to a stop, and they stepped out as soon as the doors slid open.

"Got any far removed relatives that people wouldn't really know all that much about?"

Danny considered her question as they walked through the lobby of the hotel. "I have an aunt in Spittoon, Arkansas. I've never really talked much about her with anyone. I only really met her once when we went down to celebrate her tenth anniversary after her divorce."

"Great! I can be her step daughter in her second marriage. That would make us cousins-in-law," Valerie explained, working quickly to think of all the details. "I'm considering college options, and my parents decided to send me out here to visit with my cousin," she grinned, hugging an arm around Danny's shoulders, "and see how I like the place you go to. That sounds pretty plausible, right?"

"But we're the same age," Danny pointed out after mulling over the story. "Wouldn't it be a bit late for you to be considering college options?"

Valerie paused but bounced back quickly. "Not if I took some time off from school after high school to do some world traveling. Now I'm back and ready to continue with my education."

Danny nodded, deciding that could be believed. People did take some time away from pursuing their education after high school. In this case, Valerie would have taken quite the extended vacation, but it could still work for a story. "What about your name? Would anyone be suspicious if you use Valerie Gray?"

"I think we'll be safe. I'm not exactly supposed to be seen on camera and well known for my job."

Danny nodded, happy to have a story worked out prior to reaching the university. He didn't want to get that deer in the headlights look the first moment someone asked about Valerie, which usually was a dead giveaway that he was about to lie. He glanced toward Valerie as they walked toward the entrance gate to the university. Skulker was describing, in detail, one of his more spectacular hunts in which he managed to fell the three headed ghost leopard, whose pelt now adorned the floor of his lair. Danny smiled a little as Valerie nodded along and asked questions that only spurred Skulker to go into more detail. He was glad his two "protectors" got along so well.

When they passed through the gate onto campus grounds, Danny had a sudden fear of people swooping down upon him with demands of whom Valerie was. He nearly laughed out loud when he realized how completely silly that sounded. The only ones that would really care were Sam and Tucker. Perhaps Lancer, if only because the man liked to keep the lines of communication open with his students. Only people with early classes like Danny were wandering around at the moment, and many of them seemed to still be in a half asleep stupor as they headed for class or to the cafeteria for a quick breakfast. Danny led the way toward the building that housed his first class of the day.

"Phantom's been famous for a couple of years now," Danny mumbled, thinking out loud as he turned his blue eyes onto Valerie. "If you've been his bodyguard the whole time, have you never wanted to go to college?"

Valerie shrugged. "I guess college isn't for everyone. But it's not like I don't have an interest in learning new things," she added quickly as if she was afraid he would judge her negatively for that fact. "I read and study up on things when I'm not on the job. Having Phantom missing for a while gave me the chance to sit back and catch up on a few things. Not that I'm saying I'm glad that he gave me the slip. Just, you know-"

"Thinking of the positives?" Danny smirked, and with a smile, Valerie nodded. "So is being a bodyguard all you want to do with your life? You don't have any other dream careers that you might want to pursue later in life?"

"Awfully curious, aren't you?" Valerie eyed him briefly then took a moment to consider the question. "For now, it's a pretty good gig. I get to live in a great apartment that my boss basically pays for. I get to travel around the world whenever Phantom tours. There haven't exactly been people showing up to try to kill or kidnap him, so the job's been a little laid back. Mostly I just watch his back wherever he goes, but I don't use that as an excuse to get lazy. I keep up with my training."

Danny remembered how they first met and definitely had to agree Valerie was no slouch when it came to fighting. "But it doesn't sound like the job gives you a lot of room for other things. You know, like friends or," he shrugged, "dating."

Valerie's mouth pursed to one side in thought. "Well, we're still pretty young. I'm not going to get too hung up on the whole dating thing. Friends," her green eyes glanced away, "would be nice. I've got Phantom and everyone at Spook Records. But I guess sometimes it would be nice to hang out with people off the clock. You know?"

Danny nodded. Doing the radio show with friends was great, but Danny liked the times when he could kick back with his friends and just hang out without having to think about the job.

"Speaking of dating," Skulker spoke up, reminding the pair that he had tagged along. Danny had, admittedly, forgotten he was there during his silence. "Is that Ember seeing anyone?"

Danny stared, and he could have sworn there was a faint blush upon the ghost's cheeks. Biting down on his lower lip, he tried not to laugh at Skulker's question. It simply seemed unbelievable to him after all this time that Skulker was interested in someone, romantically, but Danny guessed even ghosts were prone to the same emotions as humans, such as love. It was something discussed at length in his classes on paranormal studies. Even after speaking directly with ghosts, some of the "experts" still didn't believe ghosts were capable of feeling anything remotely human. These same "experts" also tended to align with the ideas of the anti-ghost groups that wanted to rid their world of all ghosts.

"Well, Ember hasn't mentioned being interested in anyone recently," Valerie answered, trying to hold back a smile. "But I could try to slip in a good word for you, though I do suggest watching what you say next time. I don't think she appreciated you calling her babe."

"Hey!"

Danny halted outside the door to the building with his first class as a sense of dread washed over him. He turned and cringed when he saw the angry man storming over to them. After moving out, he thought his troubles with Spike would be over, but of course he wouldn't be so lucky. He didn't need to throw a glance at Skulker to know the ghost would glaring, practically growling as he snarled at the spiked haired, tattooed man approaching them. That was about all Skulker was able to do because if he did what he _wanted_ to do, he would be tossed off campus and banned from over coming back.

"What do you want?" Danny asked tiredly, wanting to get to class before he ended up being late.

Spike seized the front of Danny's hooded sweatshirt, yanking him forward a step. "What's the big idea just up and leaving in the middle of the night like that?" He narrowed his eyes, drawing back his upper lip in a snarl that made him even less attractive than usual.

"Well, you see, my cousin here," Danny gestured with one hand toward Valerie, "just arrived in town to visit me. Since my new uncle-in-law has so graciously decided to rent an apartment for us, I decided I no longer needed to live with you." Danny smiled as innocently as he could. "Weren't you the one who suggested I move out if I was unhappy being woken up by your drumming at the crack of dawn?"

Spike glowered even darker as his hand twisted about the fabric of Danny's sweatshirt. "And who exactly is going to pay the rest of the rent?"

"Are you saying you're unable to find another roommate?" Danny managed to look stunned by the news. "Such a great roommate as you? I'm sure with your _lovely_ personality, you'll have a long line of possible roommates at your door in no time. After all, _I'm_ the one no one wanted to be roommates with, right?" He was beginning to understand the situation a bit better now. Spike knew Danny was about the only one desperate enough to agree to be his roommate, just as Spike was about the only one that was willing to accept Danny living in his apartment. Danny resisted the urge to smirk widely. If he really wanted to ensure Danny would stay his roommate and pay the majority of the rent check, Spike should have treated him better.

Spike drew back his free hand, balling it into a fist. Before he could even start on the forward thrust of a punch, Valerie stepped in, sliding between the pair of them and seizing his arm. With a hard twist, she managed to wrench his hand free of Danny's sweatshirt. Then suddenly, Spike was laying on his back before them, and Valerie stood up straight, clapping her hands as if brushing away dust. Danny blinked wide eyes of surprise while Skulker landed upon his shoulder with a smirk about to crack his face in half.

"I'll ask that you not touch my cousin again," Valerie said icily with a glare at Spike. She turned Danny around, pushing him toward the door of the building. "Do you have a death wish?" she wondered, eying him once they were inside and walking down the hall. "You can't fight, but you'll provoke a bully into a fight?"

"That wasn't exactly my intent," Danny said, wincing.

"But I can't say that guy didn't deserve it. He seemed kind of like a jerk." Valerie cracked her knuckles like she wanted to go back and give Spike a few punches to make the message stick.

"He really was. But, um, thanks for stepping in like that." Danny rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly, knowing that if she hadn't done something, he probably would have stood there stupidly and let Spike punch him.

"It's my job to watch your back." Valerie grinned as she slapped a hand to his back.

"Hopefully, I won't make you work too hard at your job." Danny gave half a smile. "I wouldn't want to seem too pathetic in your eyes."

"Not everyone's a fighter. You shouldn't feel bad about that." They stopped at one of the doors within the building, the one to Danny's first class. "But," Valerie added with a sternness in her green eyes that reminded him of the looks Sam would sometimes give him, "maybe you should try not to provoke the bullies too much."

Danny held up one hand, placing the other over his heart. "I shall do my best to watch what comes out of my mouth from now on." He grinned when she rolled her eyes. "I'll see you after class." He gave a short wave then disappeared into the classroom.


	12. Chapter 12

"This whole cousin-in-law thing is working out better than I imagined," Danny admitted after they left the building that housed his last class before what he considered to be his lunch break.

"This is why the little details are so important with a cover story," Valerie said as her green eyes swept around the campus. They hadn't run into any trouble since that morning when Spike came to harass him, but she was always alert, all part of being a bodyguard. "If we were trying to make things up on the fly, we'd risk getting caught a lot easier."

Danny nodded his agreement. He kept the things he told Dash earlier about his theories on the Badger filed away in his memory in case he ever had to repeat them. One thing about having secret identities was constantly having to remember what lies were told to cover it up. He hoped Phantom would resurface soon so that he didn't have to keep up with the lies for too long. No one seemed to suspect anything yet, but that didn't mean they wouldn't sooner or later.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Valerie question, turning back to him with her brow creasing just slightly with worry lines. "I don't have to go into the classes if you don't want me to."

The corner of his mouth tugged upward as Danny shook his head. "It's fine." After his first class, his next teacher bumped into him just before he entered the classroom and questioned Valerie's presence. When Danny finished the explanation, his teacher encouraged Valerie to sit in and see how she liked the class. "You can think of it as coming to college without having to pay or do any of the work." He chuckled. "And if the class bores you, you don't have to pay attention and you won't get in trouble for it."

"I have to admit the class on paranormal studies was pretty interesting." Valerie smirked as she nudged him with her elbow. "I shouldn't have expected any less from the son of the Fenton's."

Danny flushed, scratching awkwardly at the back of his head. "I guess it sort of runs in my blood. My sister always hated it though. If ghosts weren't all around us all the time," he stopped to let the ghost of a small girl dart past them as she chased after some ghost butterflies, "my sister would probably be in denial that they even exist. She ran off to New York as soon as she graduated to continue studying psychology."

"Do your parents ever go overboard praising you for following in their footsteps?"

Danny shrugged as they headed toward the cafeteria. "I guess. I mean, they really like that I'm studying the paranormal, and they always want to discuss stuff with me when I go home. But I guess it's just always been like that so I don't really find it so overburdening. When I was younger, I always thought they were pretty embarrassing, but not so much now."

"Are your parents as crazy as people say?" Valerie flushed lightly as she turned her gaze away when Danny's expression soured. "It's just people say they're really obsessed with ghosts, and on television, they never really look all that competent." She winced as she spoke.

"They do tend to get pretty overenthusiastic," Danny agreed with a sigh that felt like it drained most of his energy. He pulled open the door to the cafeteria and held it open for her. "But they're a lot more skilled than they appear, and they always have new ideas for inventions to help protect people from the more violent ghosts. Unfortunately, some people use them on completely innocent ghosts that aren't bugging anyone."

"Just point them out to me." Valerie slammed one fist into her other hand and cracked her knuckles, and Danny had to grin. After seeing how she dealt with Spike, Danny knew she could teach those bullies of ghosts a few lessons.

"I hope you're not suggesting violence on the university's campus."

Danny froze when he heard the man's voice, and even Valerie winced. "Uh, hi, Mr. Lancer." He smiled up at his teacher, hoping the man wasn't about to give him a stern, and long, talking to about using violence against bullies.

Lancer nodded in greeting as he stared down his nose at his student. "I appreciate that you've always stood up for the protection of ghosts on campus, but I do hope you realize that answering bullies with violence might only make you a target for harassment too."

"I know, Sir. We're not going to go out searching for bullies to beat up or anything." Danny gulped when Lancer nodded in that slow manner with a look in his green eyes that said he would be watching to make sure they didn't get into trouble.

"You've yet to introduce us." Lancer's gaze broke away from Danny to glance toward the woman standing next to him.

"Oh!" Danny ducked his head briefly in embarrassment for forgetting to make introductions. "This is Mr. Lancer. He teaches literature here. Quite easily one of my favorite teachers."

"Flatter won't improve your grades," Lancer said, eying Danny as he held out his hand to Valerie.

"Valerie Gray," she greeted as she shook his hand. "Danny's new cousin-in-law. My father recently married his aunt."

Danny felt a nervous laugh bubbling up in him when Lancer glanced his way, but he squashed it down. "It was really sudden. My aunt didn't even tell _us_ about it until Valerie turned up here."

"I was pretty shocked when I came back from Paris and discovered I had a new step-mother," Valerie added. "But they seem pretty happy together. So I thought it was best if I actually get back to my education after getting lost exploring Europe for a while. Visiting my new cousin-in-law," she hugged an arm around Danny's shoulder as she grinned, "seemed like the best way to get started on that."

"I see," Lancer said slowly, and Danny felt sweat on the back of his neck, fearing that his teacher may have figured out their back story was all a lie. "Well, I hope you won't provide too much of a distraction for Mr. Fenton during class. Otherwise, you're welcome to sit in if you like. I'll see you in class." He nodded his head to Danny before walking past them to leave the cafeteria with his lunch bagged up.

"That went well," Valerie said, leading the way to the counter.

"I don't know," Danny mumbled uncertainly. "He might have figured it out and didn't want to make a thing of it in public."

"You're sounding paranoid, you know?" Valerie laughed at him as they waited in the short line.

"Not that paranoid. He figured out, um," Danny glanced around at all the people in the cafeteria, "the other thing," he finished lamely. He didn't want to mention it by name where he might be overheard, but Valerie would know what he meant.

"And I thought you were clever at keeping it secret." Valerie faked disappointment as she shook her head.

When they reached the front of the line, Danny allowed Valerie to order her lunch first before putting in his own order. He started to pay, but Valerie had the money out faster and handed it over to the man behind the counter with a polite smile on her face. He thought about arguing but decided against it. Why not enjoy this free ride of not having to worry about ever last cent he had being wasted to pay for rent and for food? It was nice to relax and not worry about money. Once they had their food, they left the cafeteria.

"I guess it's time you meet my friends," Danny said as a wash of nervousness came over him. He wasn't sure how well they could keep the charade up in front of his friends. Sam and Tucker weren't as easy to fool as some of his teachers. "By the way, I should probably mention that they're dating. But they're trying to keep it secret from me. My guess is that they don't want me feeling like the third wheel so they figure it's best not to say anything and we can keep pretending like we're still the same old friends." Danny shrugged. "They think I haven't noticed, but they're kind of obvious about it to me, so I haven't bothered telling that I know."

"Just how many secrets can one man keep?" Valerie questioned, eying him with a certain amount of wonder. "You should really work on not keeping so many. Secrets have a way of catching up to you one day, you know."

"I do worry about that." Danny winced. "It keeps me up at night. I just stare at the ceiling in the dark thinking one of these days everyone is going to find out all the secrets I've been keeping and my world is going to crumble down around me." He stared wistfully up at the sky as they headed for the spot where he usually met Sam and Tucker.

"So overdramatic!" Valerie gave him a shove, rolling her green eyes as if his playacting annoyed her, but her mouth tugged into a grin of amusement.

"You can't really blame me for some of the secrets I have to keep though," Danny said after a chuckle. "I'd rather not get mobbed by people if they knew I'm the voice behind you know who." His blue eyes darted around quickly, but most of the students they passed weren't paying much attention to them. "And I've promised to ensure no one discovers that I'm filling in for a certain someone that's decided to play hooky for a while."

"I understand having to keep those ones." Valerie nodded, but her expression turned worried as her mouth curved downward. "Though you should probably tell your friends you know about them at some point so they don't have to keep worrying about you finding out one day or how you'll react to them sneaking around behind your back."

"I suppose you have a point there." Danny sighed tiredly. He knew eventually they'd have to break the illusion that nothing had changed in their friendship, especially if one day Sam and Tucker decided to get married and start a family. He glanced over to Valerie and frowned. "You're worried about him, aren't you?"

"I wish he would at least tell me where he is so I know he's all right," Valerie admitted. "If he just wanted some time off, he could have talked to Vlad first before staging this whole runaway thing. Vlad's a pretty reasonable man. He might seem like a workaholic that's basically married to his job, but he does care for his clients. If," her gaze darted about quickly, and she lowered her voice, "Phantom really wanted to take a break, Vlad would have given him the time off. Or at the very least spaced out the scheduled appearances to give him more down time. He may be a ghost, but that doesn't make him immune to the pressure and stress of a taxing work schedule."

Danny frowned, seeing just how worried Valerie was about Phantom. He wasn't simply a job for her. He was a dear friend. "I guess the only way we'll ever know what was going on in his head is to ask him when he finally turns up again." He reached over with his free hand and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze.

"Danny!"

He looked over when he heard his name called and spotted Tucker waving his arm wildly to get his friend's attention. Danny rolled his eyes since Tucker greeted him that way every time they met for lunch. Leading the way over to where his friends sat on a blanket that Sam no doubt brought with her, Danny joined them at their usual spot with Valerie sitting down near him.

"So," Tucker said, grinning as his green eyes slipped sideways toward Valerie, "who's your new friend? I don't think I've seen her around campus before. And I happen to know every girl on campus." He leaned back with a smug grin as he glanced more fully toward Valerie, who narrowed her green eyes back at him.

"You might want to watch it, Tuck," Danny said, catching the glare from Sam. "You're going to make someone pretty angry with you later."

"Huh?" Tucker blinked in confusion at him while Sam turned her gaze to glare at the sky as if she were angry with the bright sunlight. Danny heard a noise beside him, but Valerie covered up her laugh with a cough.

Danny shook his head, holding back a chuckle of his own. "Anyway," he said as he tore open the bag with his lunch in it, "this is Valerie." He popped the top off the container with his turkey sandwich in it as Valerie gave a wave, holding a plastic fork for her salad in her hand. "She just arrived Saturday evening. My aunt married her dad, and she's here to check out our wonderful institution." He grinned, and it probably looked rather cheesy. "The great thing about this arrangement is, I get to share an apartment with her that her dad is so generously paying for so I don't have to put up with Spike anymore."

"Dude!" Tucker gaped at him with a bit of hurt in his expression. "Why didn't you ever tell us your aunt got married?"

"She didn't exactly tell us about it either." Danny rolled his eyes before taking a bite of his sandwich. After swallowing the mouthful, he added, "It happened pretty recently. I think they sort of eloped so that they could get it done quickly and not bother with the whole huge thing with a big wedding."

"I'm Sam," she introduced, holding out her hand to the other woman. "And I apologize for anything stupid these two idiots might say or do around you."

Valerie laughed, putting down her roast beef sandwich to shake Sam's hand. "Valerie. And I wouldn't worry about that." She smirked. "I can take care of myself around idiot guys."

"Trust me. She can." Danny glared at Tucker. "So you better not do anything stupid."

"What do you think I'm going to do?" Tucker gasped as if he were wounded by those words.

"Just warning you," Danny said simply as he twisted off the cap of his water bottle. "If she can throw Spike over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, you'll be like flicking away a fly."

"Really?" Sam's brow lifted with curiosity. "Maybe you should show me a few things. It's always good to know how to take care of myself if annoying," she glared pointedly at Tucker, "pests ever bother me and can't take the hint."

"Sure!" Valerie seemed happy to help. "I did suggest showing Danny a few things too. You know, to deal with obnoxious roommates." She grinned and patted him on the shoulder when Danny frowned at her. "We can use Mr. Charm Master over there for practice." She nodded her head toward Tucker, who paled at the suggestion.

Danny grinned as they all chatted while they ate their lunches. Relief washed over him, and he didn't even realize until then how nervous he was about Valerie meeting his friends and the potential disaster it could have turned into if Valerie and his friends didn't get along. A few times during lunch, Danny thought he caught Sam's eye, and she was staring at him with some suspicion, but her gaze always snapped away much quicker than he could read her. Pushing that out of his mind, he decided to simply enjoy his lunch and the time to sit and relax with his friends.


	13. Chapter 13

Pretending to be Phantom was beginning to take its toll on him. So far, everything was going along swimmingly. No one suspected that he was impersonating Phantom during the star's absence, everyone mostly bought the whole story about Valerie being his new cousin-in-law with the exceptions of Lancer and Sam though they never said anything about their doubts of the story, and his friends were getting along with Valerie and making her feel like one of their group. They were somewhat hesitant about allowing her to know that they were the ones behind the midnight to two AM radio show hosted by the mysterious Badger, but Danny assured them that Valerie could keep the secret. She had, after all, already known about it since their Saturday night show.

The toll, however, was beginning to show after a week of pretending to be Phantom. Mr. Masters, as promised, was careful to make sure the appearances as Phantom wouldn't interfere with his radio show or his classes. But having three lives to keep up with was exhausting. He was relying more on information passed to him from ghosts, mostly Skulker who would leave him during classes and scout out for anything of interest, instead of using his own eyes. Meanwhile, during classes, he lost count of the number of times that Valerie would jab him in the ribs with the capped end of her pen to wake him up before his teachers noticed. Lancer kept frowning at him with that look that said he was concerned.

Danny sighed tiredly, rubbing at one eye as he tried to focus on his homework while a song played on the radio by request. He was managing to keep up with all of his assignments, but when he kept dozing off in class, his notes were less than helpful. Valerie had taken to jotting down notes for him. He wanted to complain about it. After all, since high school, he worked hard to achieve and maintain good grades on his own without help from anyone. Maybe it was a little bit of a competitive spirit in him, or maybe he had an inferiority complex with his sister.

Jazz was always the smart one who never seemed to need to put in any effort to get straight A's. Danny was, of course, jealous of her ease when it came to school. He worked hard to earn his grades, but he knew deep down that it wasn't a contest. His parents were proud of both of them for what they accomplished, and he shouldn't keep comparing himself to his sister. But thinking of it as a contest gave him that drive to keep trying his hardest. He didn't want to suddenly start slacking off and let his grades slide. He would disappoint more than just his parents if he did.

His gaze drifted over to the notes next to his textbook. For all the toughness her aura projected, Valerie's handwriting was neat, and she dotted her I's with little stars. An amused smile tugged at Danny's mouth as he absently connected the stars in his head, seeking any constellations hidden within the notes. After a moment of doing that, he shook his head and sought out the information he needed from the notes. Valerie was very good at note taking. Part of him felt like he was cheating by using the notes she took during class, but he reminded himself that plenty of other students bought notes from the smart students. Valerie was merely offering her help by taking the notes he would have taken himself if he wasn't so exhausted. He was grateful for that.

After he finished writing out his answer to one of the questions for his assignment, Danny checked on the song. It was almost over now. He set down his pen and got back into radio mode, adjusting the microphone before him as he waited until the song finished.

"Always good to hear songs by Ember McLain," Danny said, grinning. He still couldn't believe that he actually got to meet her once, even if it was for a brief instance. "I've heard rumors that she might be planning to release a new album by summer. I know I'll be looking forward to it.

"Miranda Scofield," Danny's voice took on a dark growl as his blue eyes narrowed at a point before him on the wall, "you know what you've done, and I can assure you that if you think you can get away with that, you're wrong." Tucker managed to uncover the source of the fake nude pictures of Dash, and Danny was admittedly shocked that a woman who looked so mild mannered would dare to do that. They didn't know the story behind why she would do it, but he informed Lancer about the incident, since he already knew that Danny was Badger. He left his statement at that though, not wanting to announce publicly what Miranda had done.

"And it looks like we have a caller," Danny said, taking notice of the button that lit up to announce a caller on the line. He pressed the button on the console. "Hello, caller! You're on the air with Badger. What's on your mind tonight?"

"Oh! I got through!" the woman said in surprise, and Danny could hear some noise going on in the background like two men arguing or roughhousing. "I wanted to call about Phantom."

Danny held back a sigh. "I assure you that I'm trying my best to get in contact with Phantom's manager to schedule an appearance on our show. However, his manager has been rather difficult to get a hold of." He should have known that once Phantom started making appearances again that he would get calls from fans on the show wanting to know when the star would finally make his promised appearance.

"Huh?" The woman sounded rather confused by his comment. "Oh! Well, that is good to know. But actually I was calling about something else."

"You were?" Danny's brow creased with his own confusion. His mind jumped to that conclusion, and now he was lost on what the woman wanted to discuss in regard to Phantom.

"Recently, Phantom has started making appearances again," the woman explained, "and you seem to be the one in the know about almost everything. I thought you might be able to clear up some things. See. I was discussing things with my friends, and they seem to think I'm completely crazy."

Danny nodded along, but he was wondering where exactly this woman was going with this. "Well, you don't sound very crazy to me. What exactly were you discussing?"

"I don't believe this whole story that Phantom's been absence from the spotlight this past month simply being to rest his vocals," she answered with a huff in her voice like she was getting ready to defend herself against any teasing comments he might throw at her.

"Really?" Danny asked, trying to keep his voice curious without it cracking in his nervousness. He wondered if there was some way he might "accidentally" cut out the transmission if this woman touched too closely to the truth.

"Yes," she replied firmly with some annoyance. "I've gone over the recent recordings of the performances he's done this past week, and I've concluded that he has to be a fake. A very _good_ fake, but a fake nonetheless."

"And what makes you think that?" Danny's eyebrows rose. He didn't think anyone would have noticed that he was a fake. Mr. Masters seemed convinced that Danny was a perfect copy to replace Phantom. Desiree and Valerie were also amazed by how closely Danny resembled Phantom, not only in appearance but also in his voice.

"Well, his dance movements are pretty good, but they lack that Phantom flare. He's probably rehearsed those moves a thousand times, but he's just missing something. I know. That's a weak argument." Danny could almost hear the roll of her eyes when said that last comment. "I've already heard that enough times from my friends. But it wasn't just his dance movements. In his interviews, he seemed distracted, like he was listening to someone else rather than the interviewers. And then there's his voice. I mean, yeah, sure, it's pretty dead on for sounding like Phantom. They wouldn't use a fake and have him sing if he didn't sound practically like Phantom. But _practically_ like Phantom isn't _exactly_ like Phantom. There's a slight difference in their voices that, apparently, most people aren't noticing."

"Perhaps it just sounds different because he's been resting up for a month," Danny suggested, feeling sweat gathering on the back of his neck. He was glad this conversation was taking place over the radio instead of talking to this woman face to face where she might notice his nervousness. "He might just need to warm up his vocals a bit."

"I don't believe that. This person appearing as Phantom this past week is definitely not the real Phantom." She sounded very certain in her opinion. "What are _your_ thoughts about this?"

"Well," Danny said, trying to think fast. "I don't think we can just jump to the conclusion that he's not the real Phantom. Hasn't Phantom always claimed to be an only child? He certainly doesn't have a twin. How many strangers look practically identical to each other, including their singing voices?"

"I don't think we should just throw out the idea that he's a fake either though. How do we know he was being honest about that? Maybe he lied about having siblings because he didn't want them to be put in the spotlight and harassed by paparazzi. Or he could have wanted to keep it secret that he has a twin in case he decided he needed to take a break from the public eye."

"But aren't we just grasping at conspiracy theories now?" Danny caught the time on the clock hanging on the wall and almost sighed with relief. "Unfortunately, it looks like our time has run out for tonight. Perhaps when we get Phantom on the show, you can ask him all about this. Thank you for calling in. Good night, listeners of Amity Park. This is Badger, signing off." He checked that the phone line was closed then waited until the Off Air flashed on to release his sigh as he pulled off the headset. Maybe he should get Sam or Tucker to screen phone calls for him so that he could avoid awkward conversations like that one.

"Can you believe that woman?" Tucker asked as he joined his friend in the booth. "How can she think that isn't the real Phantom?"

Danny shrugged as he started packing away his things. "I don't know. There's always someone out there with a conspiracy theory about something though." He turned around and smirked at his friend. "Remember when you thought that there was some huge conspiracy about Sesame Street? I believe it was something about Big Bird trying to brainwash children to become vegetarians or something."

"Hey!" Tucker flushed darkly. "You promised never to mention that again!"

"What was that about Sesame Street?" Valerie questioned with amusement in her green eyes as she stepped into the booth. The small smirk that curled upon her face only made Tucker flush harder and sputter out, unable to get out a full sentence.

"Oh, just some childhood memories," Danny said with a teasing smirk.

"I can't believe it!" Sam grumbled, walking into the booth with a laptop in her hands. "That picture from Paulina is number one. Second place is at least fifty votes behind, and I really doubt it's going to get that many votes before tomorrow night's show. Shouldn't there be a rule against bullying and bribing people into voting for your entry?"

"Well, we didn't make a rule like that so we can't exactly say now that it's not allowed," Danny said, frowning at Sam's reaction. Part of him wondered if there was anything Sam and Paulina could actually agree upon. The other part of him laughed at the very idea. "And we don't know who voted for her because she bribed or bullied them, so we can't discount any votes."

"I think I would have voted for it," Valerie admitted as she looked over Sam's shoulder to see the webpage showing the different pictures for the contest. She didn't bat an eye when Sam glared at her. "What?" she asked flatly as she stared right back at Sam. "It's a good picture. That and this one." She pointed at one, and Danny wondered which one she meant. "Those two especially look like he isn't trying to be some sort of big poser. Just, you know, hanging out with friends and having a good time."

"Yeah, well, Danny was the one who took the picture that's currently winning," Sam muttered unhappily, shooting him a glare, and Danny quickly glanced away.

"Really?" Valerie lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "Isn't that somehow against the rules?" She turned her gaze back to the laptop. "Though I do admit, it is good."

"Well, they don't know that I'm Badger," Danny explained. "And I don't have any sway over who wins, so I kind of figured the fact that I took the picture doesn't matter. And it doesn't draw suspicion from Paulina if I had kept trying to make excuses to get out of it."

"I see your point." Valerie glanced at the watch her wrist and frowned. "We should get going."

Danny sighed as he crammed the last of his books into his bag and slung it across his body. "I'll see you two tomorrow," he told his friends.

"Where do you two have to be in such a hurry?" Sam questioned, lifting her eyebrow at them.

"I'd ask if you were going on a date," Tucker said, but his teasing grin was quickly replaced with a frown, "but wouldn't that be weird going out with your cousin-in-law?"

"Obviously not a date." Danny rolled his eyes as he punched Tucker on the shoulder. He ignored the grunt of pain as his friend rubbed at his arm. "We've got a schedule worked out. Class and stuff during the day, come here for the show, then head back to the apartment for a quick defensive training session before bed. It's pretty much the only time I can fit it in without it interfering with school work." He waved to his friends as he left the studio with Valerie. "Think we can skip it tonight?" he mumbled to Valerie as they walked toward the elevator. "I'm just really exhausted tonight."

"Vlad called while you were doing the show," Valerie said, frowning at Danny. "He wants you at Spook Records bright and early tomorrow. Apparently, there's something he needs to discuss with you."

Danny groaned as the doors opened and they entered the elevator. "What does he want now?" He leaned back against the wall of the elevator, and it was an effort not to slide down and sit on the floor. "I know he wants to keep up appearances and throw off suspicion that maybe I'm not Phantom and stuff, but I can't keep up with this schedule. I'm falling asleep in class, and while I appreciate your help, I really just want to be able to keep up with my grades on my own. I actually need time to sleep."

"He's not going to understand if you never tell him anything," Valerie pointed out with a snort. "What's with you and Phantom? You never speak your mind to the person who can actually do something about the busy work schedule. Tomorrow when we get to his office, you tell him that you need more rest periods between appearances. Simple as that."

"Sounds simply," Danny muttered, giving Valerie a dry look. Somehow, he doubted that Mr. Masters would be happy to hear that he needed to arrange fewer appearances during the week.


	14. Chapter 14

His brow furrowed as something cold pressed into his cheek. Painfully. His eyes cracked open, and everything was a blurry mess. After some fumbling, he managed to locate his glasses and put them on so that he could actually see the world around him. Standing over him wasn't Valerie as he would have expected as she woke him up nearly every morning since he started living in Phantom's apartment. Instead, he stared at the familiar, or mostly familiar, robotic suit that Skulker usually wore when he went hunting. Danny's brow furrowed as he stared at him.

"Why are you wearing that?" Quite some time had passed since Danny saw Skulker in his suit. Lately, the ghost hung around him in his blob form even when they weren't on campus. "And what's with the changes?"

Skulker folded his arms over his broad metal chest. He looked like he could play line back for a football team, or be a bouncer at a nightclub. His suit looked quite human, but the bluish silver metal was a pretty big giveaway that he wasn't human. He also had flaming neon green hair styled like a Mohawk.

"You're going to that record place today, right?" Skulker looked rather impatient. "I'm going along. I thought I'd make a better impression if I didn't appear as a pathetic little blob."

"But you're so cute as a little blob," Danny teased with a grin that brought a sour expression to Skulker's metal face.

"It was Valerie's idea," Skulker said, deciding to ignore Danny's comment. "She thought if I made my suit better resemble a human, perhaps I could walk around in it without people know I'm a ghost."

"Still needs a bit of work." Danny climbed out of bed, stretching his arms over his head. After yawning widely, he asked, "where is Valerie?"

"Yeah, I'm still working on it." Skulker ran a hand over his metal scalp, his hand sliding right through the fiery Mohawk. "She's making breakfast. Thought you could use a little extra sleep, but it's starting to get late, so you better hurry up and get ready."

"There's no chance that this whole meeting with Mr. Masters is to tell me that Phantom's return, is there?" Danny sighed tiredly when Skulker merely patted him on the back. Once the ghost left, Danny grabbed some of his clothes and started getting ready. Mr. Masters had the stylists pick out some clothes in Phantom's style and sent them over to the apartment so that Danny could dress up like the star when he left the hotel to head for the record studio.

Contacts, ugh! He continued to groan about having to wear them. It took him about twenty minutes in front of the mirror struggling to put the contacts in, and after he was done with that and fixing the wig, Danny still couldn't over how much he looked like Phantom. Staring in the mirror like that, it always felt like he was staring at a stranger rather than his own reflection. With a shake of his head, he grabbed his bag and headed out of his bedroom. Valerie had just finished making up some pancakes for them while Skulker sat at the table tinkering with his suit.

"So Mr. Masters didn't mention anything about why he wanted to see me?" Danny sat down and started digging into his breakfast, pouring perhaps a bit more than necessary syrup over his pancakes.

"He didn't give a reason," Valerie said with a frown as she sliced her pancakes into little wedges. "Just to make sure you're at the office bright and early. But I'm guessing it's another appearance he needs you to make."

"Fun." Danny rolled his eyes before stuffing a forkful of pancakes into his mouth.

When they finished their breakfast, they washed up their dishes before leaving the apartment together. As he was still working on making his suit pass a little more for human, Skulker joined them invisibly, though he could have just as easily flown off to meet them at the record studio instead.

"Hm. Sam's not going to be happy," Danny mumbled as the car drove them to Spook Records. He had his laptop out as he checked on some things before they arrived. Valerie leaned over to see what he meant. "Paulina's picture is sitting pretty at number one with a lead of thirty votes over the one with Dash and Kwan."

"What's the deal with them anyway?" Valerie sat back as Danny pulled up one of his assignments to do a little work. "Why does she hate this Paulina girl so much?"

Danny glanced up to the ceiling of the car as he thought back over the years. "It probably started the first time they met in kindergarten. We were having recess, and they were playing near each other in sandbox. I don't know what all happened, but it ended with Paulina pulling Sam's dress up over her head and for the rest of the day a lot of kids would laugh at her and sing that I see London, I see France, I see Sam's underpants song at her. It was pretty humiliating for her. After that, they sort of continued butting heads."

Valerie sighed as she shook her head. "It's a shame they could never work through that animosity toward each other."

Danny agreed, but there really wasn't much that he could do to help the two women stop hating each other. When the car pulled to a stop in front of Spook Records, Danny closed his laptop with a sigh and stuffed it back into his bag. Hopefully whatever appearance Mr. Masters had planned wouldn't take too much time. Danny still had some homework to finish up, and he wanted some time to sit and relax without having to think, if only for a little while. They left the car and headed into the building. It wasn't until they were in the elevator that Skulker reappeared. The people that worked on the floor where Mr. Masters' office was were well aware of ghosts and that some ghosts worked at Spook Records, so Skulker didn't have to worry about being seen by them. Danny grinned a little to himself at the thought that Skulker was hoping to see Ember again.

"Mr. Masters is waiting for you," Desiree said when she spotted them stepping off the elevator. Then she returned her focus to the computer before her as she continued with her secretarial work.

When they entered the office, Mr. Masters stood leaning against the front of his desk with his arms folded. He glanced up to them as the door closed behind them. "Ah, good. You're here."

"So what is this about?" Danny asked as he walked over to drop into the open chair in front of the desk. "You didn't exactly give any details when you called Valerie last night."

"I see you're here again, ba- Er, Ember," Skulker said, making a very poor attempt to cover up that he was about to call her babe again. "I was totally going to say Ember."

"Smooth," Danny mumbled with a fake cough into his hand. He grinned when Skulker glared at him.

Ember rolled her green eyes. "Of course I'm here. Hello!" she said as if she thought Skulker was an idiot. "Vlad is only the manager of my band. And is that," she raised an eyebrow as she waved a finger to indicate all of Skulker's suit, "supposed to impress me?"

Skulker's expression fell, and Danny really couldn't remember a time the ghost looked so crestfallen. Skulker never looked that sad even when he failed to capture whatever he was currently hunting. Valerie patted him on his shoulder, looking a bit sympathetic toward the ghost's pain.

"You know, you could throw the guy a bone," Danny mumbled as he leaned over toward Ember. "He's really taken with you. How do you know you won't like him once you get to know him if you don't give him a chance?"

Ember sighed as if it was a chore to agree to a date with Skulker. "Fine," she said, though she really didn't seem that impressed with the hunter. "We can go on a date or two, but I'm going to be busy trying to get that album finished by summer."

Mr. Masters coughed to draw their attention back to him. "To answer your question," he said to Danny, "as you probably already know, after you held that contest and all, Phantom is supposed to hold a concert soon. After that, he's supposed to start his tour."

Danny paled at the idea. "No," he shook his head, "no, no, no! I can't do a tour! I have school. And besides that, pretending to be him for photo shoots and interviews, and the occasional song, is okay. But doing an entire concert? No way!"

"We can take some time to train you to do the concert."

"I'm not doing a concert," Danny stated firmly, his eyes narrowing at the man before him. "I thought this would just be a few shows and I'd be done with it. But it's affecting my school work now. I'm falling asleep in class. And if you heard the show last night, you'd know that someone is already suspecting that I'm a fake. What happens if people start taking her seriously? And have you even been searching for Phantom?"

"Daniel, I know this all very stressful for you," Mr. Masters said, trying to sound like he understood exactly how Danny felt about all of this.

"No you don't," Ember said and stared flatly when Mr. Masters glared at her. "Hey, it's the truth. You deal with the stress of arranging everything. And that's great. You understand stress. But you don't know how hard it is on us dealing with all of those appearances you arrange and then concerts and tours. It's pretty hard. And I'm a ghost! It must be a lot harder on him," she pointed a thumb toward Danny, "being human and all."

Danny was thankful that Ember understood things from his point of view, but something nagged at him. "How come you're here? I just - I mean, I thought this was just going to be another meeting with Mr. Masters about some more appearances." He raised a curious eyebrow at her.

"Actually, that was another thing I wanted to discuss with you," Mr. Masters said, but Ember waved him off as she turned in her chair to fully face Danny.

"You see, before his great disappearing act, Phantom and I discussed doing some songs together," Ember explained. "I kind of took him under my wing when he first started here, so we've been pretty good friends. But our schedules never really allowed for us to collaborate. But I was hoping, before he disappeared, to have Phantom do a few songs on my next album."

Danny stared at her for some time before the meaning of her words really hit him. "Wait. You want me," he pointed a finger to his chest, "to be the one to sing with you on your album?" His eyes widened in shock, hardly believing that this was really happening.

"If you want to, of course." Ember leaned back in her chair. "I understand if you want to say no. I just thought that with Phantom gone, and you being such a perfect match, that you could fill in."

"I'd love to!" Danny blurted out without even a second of hesitation.

"Great!" Ember smiled widely at his answer. "I still have a few kinks to work out in the songs. But perhaps next weekend you can stop by the studio and we can start recording."

"Yes, yes," Mr. Masters said with a wave of his hand. "Glad that's all worked out. But there's still the matter of the tour."

"If you find Phantom before the tour starts, you won't have a problem." Danny frowned at the silver haired man. "I can't go off touring the country in his place. There's already someone that's suspicious of me. It's going to look a heck of a lot more suspicious if I disappear from school _and_ the radio show to do the tour. Then not only will I be outed as filling in for Phantom, but they'll know I'm Badger too. I can't do that."

Mr. Masters stared at him for several long moments before he huffed out a sigh. "You do have a point. I can't ask you to risk your own secret identity." He unfolded his arms and leaned back on them on his desk. "Unfortunately, there's still no sign of Phantom anywhere."

Danny glanced between Skulker and Ember. "You're both ghosts. You can't think of anywhere that he might hide out?"

Skulker shrugged. "If you can't find him anywhere here, he might have gone back to the Ghost Zone."

"Aren't the Portals to it sort of," Danny frowned, his brow wrinkling, "unstable? If he went through one to go back to the Ghost Zone, it could be a while before another one opens."

"Hm, that's true," Ember agreed, nodding her head. "Portals don't open at regular intervals or always in the same place. It's possible that Phantom hasn't returned because he keeps missing a Portal back to the real world. Portals don't just pop up whenever we want after all."

"Maybe you could search for him," Danny suggested, turning his gaze to Skulker. "Finding him shouldn't be hard for a great hunter like you."

Skulker narrowed his eyes at Danny's grin. "Now you're acknowledging my great prowess as a hunter?" A cocky smirk crossed his metal face as he puffed out his chest. "Well, I am of course. Phantom should be a piece of cake to find. I'll just have to wait for a Portal back to the Ghost Zone to open."

"Weren't your parents working on something that could open a Portal to the Ghost Zone?" Valerie asked as she propped herself up on the corner of the desk.

"Ah," Danny mumbled, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Yeah, but they never got it working."

Mr. Masters stared at him with a squinting scrutinizing look in his dark blue eyes. "Wait." His eyebrows lifted with surprise. "You're not the son of Maddie and Jack Fenton, are you?"

Danny blinked several times. "Yeah, I am." He pressed back into his chair when Mr. Masters leaned over him as he looked more closely at Danny's face.

"I can't believe I didn't realize before," Mr. Masters murmured, more to himself than anyone else in the office.

"Um," Danny mumbled and glanced toward the others, but they seemed as confused about it as he felt. "Realized what?"

"I attended college with your parents," Mr. Masters explained. "We were quite close. I used to work on inventions with them back in the day." He smiled fondly in memory of those days. "But I went into the music business after college, and they, well, obviously continued with their ghost research."

Danny stared, too stunned to think of anything to say at first. "They never mentioned you before."

Mr. Masters shrugged. "Well, we did go our separate ways, and they were pretty obsessed with all their research. I imagine they're still like that."

Danny nodded. "Yeah," he chuckled with a small smile, "they do have a habit of getting lost in their work. But they were good parents."

Mr. Masters nodded. "I always pictured Maddie being a great mother. She mentioned wanting to have children sometimes when we talked. I'm glad she was able to have such a great son."

Danny shifted awkwardly at that last comment. But he guessed being friends with his parents would explain why Mr. Masters was so comfortable working with ghosts and was so knowledgeable about them. "Maybe you should visit them sometime. I'm sure they'd like to see you again."

"Perhaps I will." Mr. Masters smiled somewhat. "In the mean time, I'll try not to over schedule appearances for you. Sometimes, I do forget that my musical talents need to rest at times."

"Good. Because I have some big papers coming up that I need time to actually work on." Danny felt like he could actually relax some after hearing that Mr. Masters would go easier on him with the Phantom appearances. "If that's all, can we go? I should get back to my homework. And Skulker should start looking for a Portal to get back to the Ghost Zone so that he can look for Phantom."

Mr. Masters nodded his agreement. "I'll see if I can push back to the tour in case Phantom doesn't turn up by then."

Danny got up and headed for the door with Valerie joining him. She landed a hand on his shoulder and grinned.

"See what happens when you're honest?" Valerie asked, and Danny's mouth tugged into a smile. Mr. Masters was a reasonable man, as she had said, but Danny still found it a little mind boggling to discover that Mr. Masters went to college with his parents.


	15. Chapter 15

Danny sighed with relief after he finally got out of another interview as Phantom. He really had to wonder about the sanity of celebrities when interviewers seemed to ask virtually the same questions every time. Apparently, his private life was of great interest to them, and everyone else, and they kept asking if he had anyone special in his life. Danny made certain not to slip up again and let someone's name escape him when they questioned him about it. Off stage, he could always see Valerie glaring at him, silently threatening bodily harm if he fouled that question up for a second time.

"So that was my last interview for this week?" Danny asked when he met up with Valerie, who was checking things on her phone.

"Yup." Valerie lifted her gaze to him. "All clear. And Vlad promised that he wouldn't schedule any more appearances until next week."

"That's good." Danny grinned, relieved by that news. Then he reached over, taking hold of Valerie's wrist as he turned the phone so that he could see the time on it. "Think we have time to stop by Java Mania? I don't think I'm going to make it through tonight's broadcast without some caffeine in my veins."

"We might be able to," Valerie said as she shoved her phone back into her pocket. "But we'll be cutting it close." Her grin told him that she was only teasing him. She opened the door to the car and waited for him to get in before climbing into the backseat herself. It was a nondescript black SUV, since Danny pointed out that traveling around in a limo wasn't very discreet. "No news from Skulker yet?" She lifted an eyebrow at him with a worried frown upon her face.

Danny shook his head then sagged against the seat as they headed for his favorite little coffee shop. On Sunday, they came up with the whole idea of having Skulker go back to the Ghost Zone and see if he could find any hint of Phantom. It was now Thursday, and Skulker hadn't returned even once to report back. That could be in part because portals between the real world and the Ghost Zone weren't stable, forcing him to wait until he came across another portal before he could return to the real world.

"We should have taken him to my parents before he raced off back to the Ghost Zone," Danny said, nearly smacking his forehead as the realization hit him. "They could have fixed him up with something that would allow him to stay in contact with us so we can at least get updates every now and then." He sighed tiredly as he rubbed at his eyes.

"Well, they do say hindsight is twenty-twenty." Valerie reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "And no one's going to blame you for not thinking of that idea sooner. None of us thought of it either, and we all know about your parents' work."

"I guess that makes me feel a little less guilty." Danny frowned as he stared out the tinted window of the SUV, thoughts circling around in his mind. "Maybe we should pay a visit to my parents' house when we have some free time." He turned his gaze back to Valerie. "Maybe if we can get that portal idea they had up and running, ghosts wouldn't have to worry about getting stuck on one side while waiting on a portal to open. I guess a lot of people might take issue with that though." His mouth pressed thin, anger burning in his eyes when he thought about all the anti-ghost factions that existed. "But overall, I think it could be beneficial. Especially if waiting for a portal _is_ Phantom's excuse for not returning." That idea was wearing a little thin on him when he thought about the times that Skulker had gone back to the Ghost Zone and returned. Maybe Skulker's hunting abilities aided him in seeking out portals better than other ghosts, but it still seemed unlikely that Phantom wouldn't have come across another one during the time that he had been missing.

Valerie gave it some consideration. "If you brought up the idea to the bigwigs that make up all the rules regarding ghosts, you'd probably have to wait forever before you would actually be allowed to work on the portal." A sneaky smirk slipped onto her face. "So you're probably better off just asking your parents to see if they can get it working and worry about the consequences later."

"Maybe we can even get Mr. Masters to help out," Danny suggested as a grin tugged at one corner of his mouth. "Since he knows my parents and has some background in all that ghost invention stuff." The SUV came to a stop, and when he glanced out the window, he smiled widely as he spied the big sign reading Java Mania. "Ah, sweet coffee! Just what I need."

Valerie rolled her eyes as she opened the door. "Yeah, I wouldn't want you to drop dead without your caffeine fix." She halted Danny before he could follow her out of the SUV. "You're still dressed up as Phantom. Do you really think it's wise to follow me into the coffee shop?" She frowned severely at him, making sure to block the view into the SUV so that no one would see the "famous rock star" inside it.

Perhaps it would be wiser to have changed before heading to the Java Mania, but they decided that Danny should remain in the Phantom disguise until after they reached The Renaissance, so he didn't have a change of his normal clothing with him. He preferred delaying removing the contacts for as long as possible too, still hating them and having to put his fingers anywhere near his eyes

Danny reached back and tugged the hood of his top up over his head, hiding the locks of white hair from sight. "I'm pretty good at being invisible most of the time. Besides, I'll just hang back and draw zero attention to myself."

"Fine. But don't make me have to come rescue your butt if someone finds out." Valerie stepped out of the way to allow Danny to climb out of the SUV then closed the door behind them. She led the way into the Java Mania and walked straight up to the counter where a small line was already waiting. She acted casually, like just another customer, but she would be on the lookout with her keen eyes scanning the coffee shop to observe everyone within it.

Danny loitered near the door to the Java Mania, glancing around until he found an open table to sit at while waiting for Valerie. He strolled over to the table and dropped into one of the black plastic chairs, his gaze drifting around the coffee shop. It was a pretty calm night for the Java Mania, which tended to be a hot spot on the weekends, but there was a good amount of people hanging out at the coffee shop, chatting or working on laptops as they drank their coffees. Leaning back in his seat, he stretched his legs out under his table and crossed his ankles, enjoying the brief moment to simply sit and watch the world. He felt like he had less time to do some people watching while he had to pose as Phantom, and he found he greatly missed it.

"'Cause I don't know where you're going."

Danny heard playing in the background over the chatter of the people in the coffee shop. A smile tugged at his mouth when he recognized the song.

"But do you got room for one more troubled soul."

Danny hummed along to the song as he glanced toward the counter to see where Valerie was. She was at the front of the line placing their order to the employee, who looked a touch too cheery with her wide smile and bright blue eyes and blonde curly hair pulled back into a high ponytail.

"I don't know where I'm going but I don't think I'm coming home and I said I'll check in tomorrow if I don't wake up-"

"I knew it!"

Danny practically jumped when someone suddenly grabbed his shoulder. He twisted around in his chair, dread washing over him when he came face to face with someone very familiar to him. The instinct to bolt from the coffee shop was his first response, but the woman already had a tight hold upon his arm.

"Pa-" Danny caught himself before he let her name slip. "Can I help you, Miss?" He blinked innocently at the woman as if this was the first time they were meeting.

"Oh, don't play dumb!" She rolled her emerald eyes with a slight hint of annoyance. "I know it's you, Pha-"

Danny moved quickly, shooting out of his chair and covering her mouth with his hand to keep her from finishing the rock star's name. "I would really prefer it if you didn't start some sort of riot," he murmured quietly with his mouth near her ear. With his head that close to her, he could smell the vanilla coconut shampoo that she used to wash her glossy ebony hair. He glanced around, but very few people even looked their way. "Let's go outside to talk."

With some hesitancy, Danny lowered his hand away from her mouth. When she didn't immediately cry out his identity to the coffee shop, he felt only a small amount of relief. He grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her behind him as he headed for the exit of the Java Mania. Once they were outside, he turned to face her, folding his arms to keep his hands from twitching and giving away his nervousness over this encounter. His gaze shifted around as he licked his lips, trying to think of what to do in this situation. Then he finally turned his eyes back onto the woman standing in front of him.

"Yes," Danny said quietly, wary of anyone nearby that might hear them. He realized that he really needed to be more cautious about accidentally singing along to songs in public if it was going to give himself away when he was trying to keep a low profile. That was the reason he got caught up in this whole mess in the first place: Mr. Masters overheard him singing to the song he was listening to as he walked around downtown. "I'm-"

"No," the woman argued, lunging at him faster than he could react. Her hand grabbed for his hood, and Danny hurried to lift his arms, tugging the hood down to keep her from yanking it off him. But his attempt didn't completely keep him safe. "Aha!" A smug smirk pulled across the woman's face as dread settled over Danny like a dunk in icy waters. "The real Phantom doesn't wear a wig." She tugged at a lock of raven hair peeking out from under the wig that she managed to push back just enough to reveal his real hair. "I'll admit that you're a pretty good copy of him, but you are so not the real Phantom." She stood back, folding her arms as she narrowed her emerald eyes at him. "So where's the real Phantom?"

As he fixed the wig back into place, Danny threw a glance back inside the Java Mania, but Valerie was still waiting on their coffees to be ready. When he turned back, the woman was tapping her foot impatiently waiting on him to explain. What could he even say at this point? She already had evidence that he was in fact a fraud.

"It's pointless to make up any lies," she said before he could even work up an excuse to explain things. "People said I was being crazy for thinking you were a fake. It's just a conspiracy theory, they said. Well, now I _know_ ," she jabbed a well manicured finger into his chest, "you're a fraud. So tell me. Why shouldn't I expose you as the fake that you are?"

Danny cringed. Mr. Masters was going to be very angry if he found out that someone learned the truth about his deception. Reaching a hand under his hood, he rubbed at his neck. "You can't go spreading this around though." He gave her a very serious look. "Last month, Phantom disappeared without warning, and currently, they still don't know where he is. We don't even know his exact reason for pulling this disappearing act. Until they find him, they needed someone to fill in for him so that public wouldn't grow suspicious about his disappearance. That's why they asked me to pose as Phantom."

"He's missing?" she gasped out, her emerald eyes growing wide from shock. Then her brow knitted as her gaze traveled over his body, all the way down and back up to meet his eyes. "So who exactly are you then?"

Danny's gaze darted back to the Java Mania as Valerie pushed open the door with two paper cups of coffee in her hands. While Mr. Masters might be upset at him for spilling the beans about Phantom being missing, Valerie would probably leave him a hurting mess on the ground. His throat ran dry at that thought, but glancing back at the woman, he doubted he would fare any better an outcome with her.

"Paulina-"

Her name was all he could get out before the large window of the Java Mania beside them shattered. Danny reacted by grabbing hold of Paulina and using his body to shield her from flying glass. He snapped his head around, his hood slipping back, as he looked for Valerie. Their coffee lay abandoned on the ground, the hot bitter liquid splashing out over the not quite white sidewalk. Valerie dropped the cups of coffee to retrieve her blaster hidden at her back the moment the window shattered.

"Get in the car!" Valerie shouted, taking aim and firing at something in the sky.

Danny twisted his head around to see her shot strike a ghost in the chest, sending him off course in his flying. But there were more ghosts coming, their hands glowing with energy in preparation to expel it in their direction. He shook his head as his gaze found Valerie again. "No. Give me one of your guns. You can't fight them all alone."

Valerie snapped a glare at him as if she was insulted by the comment. "I've got this. Just get in the car."

"What is going on?" Paulina shouted, her voice trembling in her terror.

Danny moved quickly, pulling her along with him as another ghost fired a blast of energy at them. "I really wish I knew," he mumbled, keeping his eyes on the sky where at least seven ghosts were gathered. In the distance, he could hear the faint blaring of a siren, the signal of either his parents or the Guys in White that acted to protect the town against violent ghosts. Gritting his teeth out of frustration, he dragged Paulina with him to the SUV where they would be safe, hopefully.

"Why are we being attacked?" Paulina demanded, a hint of hysteria entering her voice as Danny pushed her into the back of the SUV, climbing in shortly after her and slamming the door shut against the noise of blasts being fired.

"Paulina, calm down." Danny placed his hands on her shoulders. "Everything's going to be okay. Valerie is a great fighter, and the Guys in White, and probably my parents, are on their way to make sure those ghosts don't hurt anyone."

Paulina lifted her head, her mascara slightly running from the tears in her eyes. She blinked, something seeming to work its way through the fear and panic of ghosts suddenly attacking. "Danny?"

Danny pulled his hands away from her, and he felt a trickle of sweat running down the side of his head. He hadn't meant to slip up and reveal his real identity, but the situation left him a little rattled.

"I should have known!" Paulina slapped a hand down on the backseat, surprising Danny. "How could I have missed that? You know all of Phantom's lyrics and dance moves. It's so obvious!"

Danny winced. "I really hope it's not so obvious that other people figure it out."

"I really never - AH!" Paulina shot away from him, pressing her back against the door. The whites showed around her emerald irises, her eyes growing impossibly wide from fear as her hands covered her mouth.

"What-" Danny turned his head to see what had caused that reaction from the woman. Something struck the side of his head, heat prickling at his flesh as white blossomed in his vision at the force of the impact. Paulina's screams filled the SUV while Danny hit the floor of the backseat. The world blurred before him, and sounds muffled somewhat, the terrified screams seeming more and more distant.

"You should have stayed out of the spotlight." The ghost floated over him with a cocking smirk on his rotting face.

Danny tried to focus on the ghost, keeping his mind from slipping into unconsciousness. He forced his body to move, lifting himself up from the floor, but a second blow to the head knocked him out.


	16. Chapter 16

Danny cracked his eyes opened, and for a few minutes, the world was nothing but a blur around him. It slowly came back into focus as he heard the noise of something clinking and clanging. He wasn't entirely sure, but it reminded him of watching those old movies that involved knights all decked out in shiny armor. He snorted at the thought of a knight in shining armor, though right now, he thought he would be okay with the idea if Phantom were to show up at that moment. When everything came back into focus, he found he was lying on his side facing a wall made of dirty gray stone.

Danny wrinkled his nose at the rotten odor filling wherever he was. Pushing himself up, he held a hand to his throbbing head and turned to scan the room. What happened? He tried to recall his last memories before the darkness overtook him as he examined his surroundings. Water, or what appeared to be water since it had an eerie green shimmer to it, dripped in the right corner of the room, which was a perfect square with not much space in it. He saw no windows on any of the walls, and the door was made of a hard wood with a tiny barred slot toward the top.

Panic rattled through his mind as he gasped from the shock. He was locked up in some dank, cramped cell with only his memory before passing out as a clue for what was happening. They went to Java Mania to get coffee before he needed to return to campus and meet up with Sam and Tucker at the studio for their midnight show. Valerie went to buy the drinks while he accidentally sang along to a song playing in the coffee shop.

"Crap," Danny muttered, groaning internally. Paulina found out that he was masquerading as Phantom while the rock star remained missing, and he knew Valerie and Mr. Masters weren't going to be happy about that fact. He rubbed at his eyes, which felt itchy and dry as he continued flipping through the events leading up to his blackout. They were talking, and then - His eyes widened a fraction. Then ghosts started attacking them!

Danny shot to his feet, his gaze darting all around the room. What did the ghosts want? Why did they attack and kidnap him? Why did they bring him here? Wherever here was, which he had very little clue as to where exactly that was. He crept closer to the door, still hearing that clinking of metal on metal. Then he cautiously peeked out the window, holding his breath as he scanned what he could see of the long stone hall lit by torches that glowed with soft green fire. A guard floated back and forth down the hall, his dark armor clanging with each movement. The guard wore a helmet that hid his face, but Danny caught sight of bright red eyes glowing in the darkness of the face mask.

Danny jerked away from the door, stumbling back into the center of the room. He clutched at his chest as his heart felt like it would beat right of his ribcage from shock and fear. He was in a cell in some medieval type place from the looks of it, but worst of all he had a ghost guarding the exit. Pacing around the room, he tried to keep calm. Then he paused, his gaze turning to the water leaking into his cell. He followed each drop from ceiling to the small puddle on the floor. Minutes ticked by before he twisted around, snapping his gaze back to the barred slot on the door. The water and fire were both green, completely unnatural if he was back in the real world.

The ghosts didn't simply kidnap him. They took him _into_ the Ghost Zone!

Danny stood, gaping at the door as the blood inside him ran cold. His parents had theories about the Ghost Zone based on their research and the knowledge gained from speaking to ghosts, but no human had ever actually entered the Ghost Zone. There was ecto radiation to consider. He dropped his gaze to his hands as if he could see the changes as they occurred as the ecto radiation affected him.

What was he supposed to do? Danny had no way to contact anyone. He patted himself down but found no phone. It was probably left in his bag, which, of course, was still in the SUV. Then he started wondering about what happened to Paulina and Valerie. Did the ghosts leave them alone after they took him? Or were they taken too? But why would the ghosts take any of them in the first place? He reached up to rake his hand through his hair when he felt something shift on top of his head.

The wig! He took it off and stared at it. He was still dressed up from posing as Phantom at another interview. Was that the reason? They kidnapped him because they thought he was actually Phantom? Danny quickly put the wig back on, making sure to hide every strand of raven hair beneath it. It might be better for them to keep thinking that he was Phantom. He didn't want to know what they would do to him if they realize that he was just some human and not the ghost they wanted.

But why did they want to kidnap Phantom? None of this was making any sense to him. He didn't have all the pieces to figure out the answer. Even if he did understand what was going on, he still had no way out of the cell. He couldn't contact anyone. A guard blocked the exit, even if he could get it unlocked. He didn't know anything about the Ghost Zone either. If by some miracle he escaped, he would be completely lost. Nothing in the Ghost Zone was edible for humans, which meant he would likely starve before he could actually get back home.

Danny walked over to the back and dropped to the ground. An ache grew in his chest, and his eyes stung at the thought that he would never see his friends and family again. How did things even turn out like this? All he was supposed to do was fill in for Phantom for a while. Do a performance here and an interview there. He wasn't supposed to take Phantom's place as a kidnapped victim. Danny closed his eyes as he tilted his head back to lean against the wall. This was a nightmare.

His arms flailed out before him when his back didn't meet with any resistance. He hit the ground and blinked, staring up at the ceiling of another room with half his body still within the cell. After a few moments, he sat up, dragging his legs through the wall. His gaze fixed upon them in puzzlement as he tried to understand what just happened. Then he crawled over to the wall, and reaching out, he pressed his hand to the stone. But his hand passed right through it as if it wasn't tangible. He stared at his hand, or where his hand would be if it wasn't sticking through the wall.

A slow grin spread onto his face. If the walls weren't tangible to him here, escaping would be a lot easier. Pulling his hand free, he walked to the other side of the room and stuck his head through the wall. A hall stood empty on the other side, lit by the glowing green that cast an eerie atmosphere upon the hall. After glancing down both ends, he stepped through the wall and started down the hall. He didn't know exactly where he was going, but his first thought was to figure out where he was. Maybe he could find some way to contact someone, get word to his parents in the hopes that they would figure out some way to rescue him. If he were extremely lucky, maybe he would stumble onto a portal. Even if he ended a thousand miles away from Amity Park, he would at least be back in the real world and would be able to find a way to call his parents or friends.

At the end of the hall, he found a stairwell that circled up to the next floor. Danny hesitantly walked up the stairs, doing his best to look around the curve to check for any guards. He nearly made to the top before he spotted a guard standing in his way and quickly ducked behind the curve to stay out of sight. His mind scrambled for what to do. He had no way to fight against a ghost. He never even really needed to know how to fight ghosts, despite his parents wanting him to be prepared, since he never came up against a ghost that actually wanted to attack him.

Tentatively, Danny glanced around the curve again to see that the guard had moved away. Then he slipped out of the stairwell, tossed around a cautious look, and crept down the hall. It was like a maze of twists and turns down all the halls, and he had to keep ducking out of the way to avoid being seen by guards on patrol.

_I feel like I'm in some video game_ , Danny thought, sneaking down another hall, but he doubted he would simply wind up back in an easy to escape prison cell if he was caught by the guards. He came to a halt as he glanced all around the giant hall. A red carpet led from the open doorway up to a throne on a raised platform. Huge tapestries hung on the walls from ceiling to floor. He stepped farther into the throne room until he heard the creak of an opening door at the other end. His heart jumped into his throat as he watched the door slowly drawing open. He was in plain sight of whomever was about to enter the hall. His gaze darted about, but he had few options on where to hide. Quickly, he dashed over to one of the tapestries and ducked behind it, pressing his back as flat as possible to the wall without completely passing through it.

"My liege," someone said, and Danny wished he could actually get a look at the ghosts that entered the throne room. "We still have not received word from-"

"So," cut off another ghost in a commanding voice that made Danny bite his tongue to keep from gasping loudly. There was something in that ghost's voice that sent trembles through his body. "He cares nothing for the life of his son. If he doesn't send word of his surrender within the hour, we eliminate his heir."

Danny gulped as he stepped back through the wall and out into a normal hall. If they meant what he thought they meant and Phantom was the "heir" they referred to and they were planning to execute him, then he definitely needed to get out of this castle. And fast.

When a hand suddenly covered his mouth, Danny tensed, his heart stopping as his eyes widened, too wrapped up in fear to even manage a startled yelp of surprise. He forgot to check the hall for patrolling guards, and now he might end up being dragged right in front of the ghost that was ordering his execution in the next hour. He couldn't breathe or move or even think as the fear of his impending death seemed to draw closer to him, like a shadow creeping over the stone floor ready to snuff the light out of him.

"Don't make a sound," the ghost whispered into his ear. Her voice was calm and gentle, and Danny found himself unconsciously relaxing upon hearing her speak. "Follow me."

After her hand withdrew from his mouth, Danny turned around as the ghost glided down the hall to a stairwell leading up another level. He glanced around briefly, checking for anyone that might see them. Then he hurried to follow after the ghost. She waited at the top of the stairwell for him when she found that he wasn't immediately behind her. She held up a hand to stop him, and Danny inched back around the curve of the wall.

"Princess." The new speaker had a gruff voice, and the clinking of metal suggested that he was another guard.

"Sir Leon." The woman lifted up the sides of her skirt as she performed a short curtsey with her head bowed.

"What business have you in the east wing?"

"None." She stood up straight but kept her head down and her eyes cast upon the floor. "I merely wished to stretch my legs a bit. So to speak."

"I suggest you be careful where you wander."

"I shall keep that in mind." She curtseyed again to the guard.

After a moment, she turned part way toward him and gestured with one hand for him to follow again. They made their way down a few more halls then up a spiraling staircase into a tower room. Once they were inside, she closed the door and pushed a bolt into place to keep the door locked.

"You look a lot like someone I know," she said, frowning at him as her red eyes traveled over his body. "But you are human where he is a ghost."

"You know Phantom?" Danny gaped at her as she tilted her head in a brief nod.

"It seems that the ones sent to retrieve you were," her mouth pursed slightly, "not very wise. They should have realized you were human, and therefore, not Phantom. Sadly, there are quite a number of idiots within the King's army."

"And you," Danny's brow furrowed, finding this all a lot to take in, "don't approve of your father's actions?"

"Father?" She blinked then laughed, covering her mouth with a hand. "He is not my father. Like you, I am a prisoner here. Ah! Where are my manners?" She flushed lightly, her cheeks turning a few shades darker green. "My mother would be embarrassed by my rudeness." She bowed to him with her head down, a rope of long blond hair sliding forward to drape over her shoulder. As she stood up straight again, she smiled kindly. "I am Princess Dorathea."


	17. Chapter 17

"Thanks," Danny said, touching his head, which was feeling much better after the ghost tended to his injury.

"I didn't really do much of anything," Dorathea said as she sat down in the only chair provided in the small tower room. "You only had a small bump and some mild bruising on the side of your head."

Danny touched the bandages that she used to wrap his head. "Still," he smiled at her, "thanks." He walked around the room, which had very little of interest in it. Aside from the chair that Dorathea occupied, there was a bed that hardly looked comfortable and a table with a single candle lit with the same green fire as the torches that Danny saw in the halls of the dungeon. It hardly looked like the sort of accommodations with which a princess would be comfortable. It felt more like a cell, but Danny recalled her mentioning that she was a prisoner there too.

He paused when he came to a small window in the wall and stared out at the dark green sky with swirls of lighter green that could be considered clouds. His gaze fell down the great height of the tower, and he was glad he didn't suffer from a fear of heights. Below the tower was a small ledge of land then nothing. The castle stood on a floating island in the vast space that was the Ghost Zone. Even if he escaped from the castle, he wouldn't be able to get off the island. He was pretty well trapped in this place, which left him with a sinking feeling of despair that pained his chest. He really didn't want to die here. He didn't want his parents and sister and friends all worrying about him and never knowing what happened to him. Turning around to face the ghost, Danny could see the concern on her face, the slight wrinkle in her brow, the way the corners of her mouth turned just slightly downward, and the glimmer of sympathy in her red eyes.

"You can fly though, right?" Hope managed to wiggle its way into Danny, but he couldn't quite get the smile onto his face. "That's, like, ghost 101. Every ghost has that basic ability, along with invisibility and intangibility. Well," he paused to consider, "more like tangibility is a skill that needs to be learned. Ghosts are naturally intangible."

Dorathea sighed as she lowered her gaze, and with it, Danny's hope fell. "I'm afraid I'm not able to leave this castle. I suppose I should start with the explanation for everything."

"Yeah." Danny swallowed thickly, getting that sense that he wasn't going to like what she had to say. "That would probably be good."

"To start with, this castle belongs to the Ghost King called Pariah Dark." Dorathea frowned sadly as she explained. "He used to rule over the whole of the Ghost Zone with his tyranny, but he was sealed away many ages ago, and his kingdom decimated until only his castle remained. It was only recently that he managed to escape his confinement and begin gathering an army to regain his former title as Ghost King. I come a small kingdom, mostly closed off from the rest of the Ghost Zone, where my brother has assumed the crown and named himself king. In our kingdom, the royal family suffers from a curse. We have amulets that allow us to transform into dragons. It is a curse that my parents utilized to protect our kingdom from outside dangers." She touched a hand to her throat, which was bare. "My brother felt there was no hope going against King Pariah, but instead of seeking alliance with other kings of the Ghost Zone," she scowled darkly, "he decided to offer me up as a gift to King Pariah in hopes that it would spare our kingdom from his cruelty. He kept my amulet to ensure that I wouldn't cause any trouble while living out my imprisonment here."

Danny's mouth slowly dropped open as he listened to her. He couldn't imagine sacrificing Jazz just to save his own neck. Even with a kingdom to protect, Danny thought Dorathea's suggestion of seeking aid from the other kings was a better option. Any option that didn't involve handing over his sister to a tyrant sounded like a better idea. He snapped his mouth shut, jaw clenching.

"Not only that," Dorathea continued, and Danny frowned to hear that there was more, "but this," she touched the golden circlet upon her head, "prevents me from even leaving the castle. And only someone of royal lineage can remove it, which King Pariah certainly doesn't plan on doing."

Danny felt like screaming both in rage and frustration. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He could escape the castle but couldn't get off the island. Dorathea could probably still fly even without the ability to turn into a dragon, but she was trapped within the walls of the castle. Together, they could help the other to escape, but that circlet that she wore prevented them being able to get away from the castle.

"I can't stay here." Danny paced around the tower room. He wanted to help Dorathea escape. It wasn't fair for her to be trapped in this castle like some chess piece between kings. But how could he save her when he couldn't even save himself? "I'm human. I don't belong here."

"I know," Dorathea said quietly, watching his movements with sad eyes. "If I could get you out of here, I would. But I'm as trapped here as you are."

"Is there any way we can get a message out there?" Danny halted and turned to face her. "If I can somehow get word out to Skulker, or maybe even Ember, they could figure out some way to rescue us."

"Unless one of them is a royal, they won't be able to free me."

Danny sighed at that reminder. It felt wrong to leave Dorathea here and escape on his own if he had the chance. He dropped to the floor and hugged his knees to his chest. His gaze lifted to the princess, and he wished she didn't have to live like this. She seemed like too nice a ghost to be caught up in this fight for power that Pariah Dark was starting. His mind turned back over everything, and his mouth stretched thin in a frown.

"You said you knew Phantom," Danny said, disrupting the silence that fell upon them. "And I overheard - Well, I'm guessing that was this Pariah guy talking. He mentioned that he would eliminate the heir if he didn't receive notice of surrender within an hour."

Dorathea's expression turned grim upon hearing that. "I used to babysit for Phantom on occasion. When I was able to actually leave the kingdom with my brother as he spoke to other kings around the Ghost Zone. Political stuff and all that that he thinks I'm too stupid and naive to understand." She rolled her eyes, but an anger burned in them. "Our parents made certain that I was schooled properly. I think they wanted me to be their heir, but my brother usurped the throne." Her hands curled around the pale blue skirt of her dress, clenched in her anger. "Anyway," she forced herself to continue, "Phantom is the son of King Plasmius. He always had a lovely singing voice but very little interest in being king. I wasn't surprised when I heard he went to the real world to pursue a singing career or that he became a famous star."

A laugh pushed its way up from his chest as Danny lifted his eyebrows. "His father is a king and actually allowed him to become a singer? I can't see that happening without a fight."

"I don't know the details about it." Dorathea lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "But being King Plasmius' heir, you can see why King Pariah wanted to get his hands on Phantom."

Danny nodded, but he frowned. "This Plasmius guy, though. He hasn't sent any word of surrender. Wouldn't he do something to get his son back? Doesn't he care at all about Phantom?"

The question seemed to trouble Dorathea. "They always seemed close when I saw them together. But that was quite some time ago. Perhaps a rift between them has driven them apart." She closed her eyes then shook her head. "But I can't imagine King Plasmius abandoning his son to suffer at the hands of King Pariah. He would never be so cruel."

"Cruel or not, he seems to be content with letting me sit here to rot." Danny's mouth pursed as he curled his hands into fists. He sat up a bit straighter, his eyes opening a touch wider as he stared at Dorathea. "If we somehow got a message to this King Plasmius and tell him that you're trapped here, would that make him come here and try to free you? He's royal so he would be able to get the circlet off you."

Dorathea frowned in thought. "Well, he might have the man power. King Pariah's army is not very big yet, and he still lacks the same strength from his days of being the Ghost King. If he strikes now, he might be able to take down King Pariah before he can become too strong to stop."

"Then that's what we need to do!" Danny climbed to his feet. "We need to get a message to him. Do you know how we can do that? Is there anyone in this castle that you can trust to get a message to him? Someone that won't betray you and tell King Pariah what we're up to?"

Dorathea turned her doubtful gaze away from him. "It's possible that there are some that aren't completely loyal to him, but they would probably be too frightened to do anything to betray him. Most ghosts fear King Pariah."

His hope dwindled again, and Danny closed his eyes, desperately trying to cling to what little hope remained inside him. "Then-" A wrinkle grew upon his brow, and he opened his eyes to stare at the princess. "Then we'll just have to figure a way out of here ourselves."

"I've already told you. I can't leave this castle as long as this circlet remains on me and only someone of royal lineage can remove it."

"Yeah, well," Danny said, ignoring the depression settling onto her face as he moved to stand behind her, "my parents have done a lot of research about ghosts, and I've done some research myself. I may not carry weapons around like them, but I do know a bit about how their inventions work. I would help them tinker with inventions sometimes." He gave the circlet a look over, his brow furrowing in concentration. "I can probably figure out some way to get this stupid thing off you."

"If you can, I may just have to hug you for it," Dorathea said, and it sounded to Danny like she might have smiled. "If I get home, I may even make you a knight."

"I don't think I would make a good knight." Danny tentatively touched the circlet then yanked his hand back with a curse after the thing shocked him.

Frowning in wonderment, he wished he had some of his parents' tools with him because he wasn't entirely sure at that moment how he was going to get the circlet off the princess. His parents could probably come up with a million different inventions that might help in this situation, though he couldn't say how many of those ideas would actually work. He shook his head. He had to think of some other method to remove the circlet. Even if they went searching about the castle, he had a feeling that they wouldn't find anything useful for crafting an invention of any sort. Everything he saw so far in the castle looked far too medieval.

"So," Danny started hesitantly, brow knitted in deep thought, "you say that only someone from royal lineage can remove this?"

Dorathea bowed her head in a short nod. "Anyone of royal lineage will work. Other than myself, of course. I've tried." She turned half way in the chair and lifted her gaze to him as she frowned. "But there is no one fitting that definition here that would remove the circlet. King Pariah certainly wouldn't be willing to do it."

"Yeah, you mentioned that." Danny folded his arms, his gaze fixing upon the circlet as if the answers would reveal themselves if he stared at it hard enough. "Okay. But let's think about this for a moment. What defines someone as being of royal lineage?"

Dorathea blinked. "Well, someone born into the royal line."

"Only someone born into the line? What about those that marry into the family?"

"I supposed they would count as part of the royal line. They would then produce an heir for the line." Dorathea frowned with a stern look in her eyes. "But, Daniel, as nice as you are, I have no intention of marrying you for the sake of escaping."

"Glad that's off the table." Danny breathed a sigh. Dorathea wasn't a bad ghost. She was kind and gentle, though her modest attire made her somewhat plain. She had the potential to be pretty though. But tying himself in marriage to someone he only just met was a little too much, even for him. "I wasn't finished though. So we agree that you can become part of the royal line even when it's not through birth."

"Yes," Dorathea agreed, not seeming offended that he was relieved about not having to marry her. "One can marry into the line."

"What about other methods?" Danny paced as the thoughts formulated in his mind. "A royal line has to start somewhere, right? There's always going to be a first king to a line. If the citizens rebelled and executed the king, a new one would have to take his place. That new king would then be start of a royal line, so he would be considered a viable option to remove the circlet. Correct?"

Dorathea tilted her head then nodded. "Yes, that would be correct." Horror flashed in her red eyes as she raised a hand to her mouth in shock. "Oh, Daniel, I hope you're not thinking of going up against King Pariah yourself to overthrow him. That would be suicidal!"

Danny winced at that _remarkable_ vote of confidence from her. "No, I certainly couldn't attempt something like that without some of my parents' weapons." He thought for a moment more. "What about new countries that are created? A king would have to arise to rule over it, right? Could I just," he shrugged, "create a kingdom in name, claiming myself king; therefore, starting a royal line?"

Dorathea shrugged, uncertainty written clearly on her face. "I suppose you could try."

"Okay." Danny took a breath. "I proclaim myself Daniel of the Fentons, uh," he thought about it, "King of Fenton Works." He squinted, turning his gaze toward the ceiling as if he expected some grand sign that it had worked, but nothing happened. "Wow," he mumbled, shaking his head. "That felt really stupid and lame."

"It did sound pretty lame," Dorathea agreed, biting her lower lip to keep from grinning. "But try removing it now." She bowed her head to him.

Danny reached out and touched his fingers to the circlet. "Ouch!" He hissed as he snapped back his hands.

"Well," Dorathea frowned, "it was worth a shot anyway."

"Maybe I can't just proclaim it." Danny waved his hands, which still stung. "Maybe it's like I have to be coronated or something. You're a princess. Do you have to power to coronate someone?"

"We could try." Dorathea got up and looked about the room, though there really wasn't much that could be hidden within it. "Ah, I know!" She reached into a pocket of her dress and retrieved a small green ring. It had a flat disc on top with a green skull set to a black background.

"That's a," Danny frowned as he eyed the object in her hand, "nice ring."

"It was my father's," Dorathea explained. "Well, he always carried it with him until he passed it down to me. Kneel."

Danny didn't question her as he dropped down onto one knee. He glanced up at her then bowed his head.

"I, Princess Dorathea, with great honor, crown you, King Daniel of Fenton Works." Dorathea carefully lay the ring upon his wigged head as if it were a crown. When she laughed, Danny tilted his head upward. "Sorry." She bit her lip. "It's just this feels like the play acting I used to do with Phantom sometimes."

"Do you miss him?" Danny rose to his feet, trying not to move his head too much and knock the ring from it.

"Sometimes." Dorathea shrugged. "He was a very sweet child. Now let's test if that worked."

Danny nodded and reached to take the circlet again. When his fingers touched it, he didn't feel that immediate shock. His fingers curled around it then lifted upward, pulling the circlet free from her head. A moment passed in silence as they stared at each other with widening eyes of disbelief. Danny drew his arms toward him, staring at the circlet as a laugh bubbled out of him.

"It worked!" He really couldn't believe that the crazy idea actually worked, but relief swept through him in the next second. With the circlet removed, Dorathea would be able to leave the castle.

A thump against the door ended any celebrating they were thinking of doing. They both turned toward the door as someone on the other sound pounded a heavy fist that was covered in a gauntlet.

"You have to hide," Dorathea whispered urgently with panic in her red eyes. She turned to the door, but Danny caught her arm to stop her.

"Wait." Danny bit his tongue as he pushed at the circlet with all his strength, the metal refusing to bend. "They'll be suspicious if you aren't wearing it, right?" He tried to force the metal to snap as the pounding at the door grew more insistent.

Dorathea placed her hands over his hands, and Danny looked up to meet her gaze. "Don't worry about it. They hardly notice anything about me, unless I'm where they think I shouldn't be. Just stay out of sight and be quiet."

Danny watched as she walked toward the door. Something didn't feel right, but he ignored that feeling as he searched for a place to hide. Only the bed provided a way of staying out of sight. He hurried over to it and moved to crawl under it. The ring slipped from his head, but he managed to catch it before it hit the ground. Once Danny was hidden, Dorathea unlocked the door and opened it.

"Why was the door locked?" demanded a ghost with a deep, rough voice.

Dorathea huffed. "I happened to appreciate some privacy without having to worry about barbaric knights storming into my only safe haven in this dreary castle."

"Well, the Ghost King demands your presence."

Danny gritted his teeth as the knight grabbed hold of Dorathea, roughly by the arm, and dragged her out of the room. When they were gone and silence reigned, Danny scrambled out from under the bed, circlet and ring gripped tightly in his hands. He couldn't sit idle when he had that terrible feeling that Dorathea was in trouble.


	18. Chapter 18

Two seconds was all the time he gave to consider whether to take the crown with him or not. Then he set it on the table within the room and left without another moment of hesitation. The crown would indeed be a powerful tool if he were to have the opportunity to place it on the head of King Pariah, then forcing the former Ghost King to be trapped within his own castle. But he was overly aware of the fact that it could be used against him should any guard he pass capture him and realize the significance of the crown. He didn't wish to risk eternal confinement within the castle. Or at least confinement until he died in this place, which was a thought that sent a cold shiver down his spine.

The ring, he stuffed into his pocket as he left the room. It belonged to Princess Dorathea, and when this was all over and they were safe, he planned on returning it to her. Danny crept down the spiraling staircase of the tower, cautiously checking for any of the guards that patrolled the castle. Mentally, he retraced the route that they took to make it to the room that served as Dorathea's sanctuary within the castle. The guard that came to retrieve her would likely take her back to the throne room where King Pariah would be waiting to speak with her.

The bad feeling remained, like a cold lump in the pit of his stomach. He had to be quick to catch up with them, though he wasn't sure what he would do once he got there. If something happened to Dorathea, Danny wasn't sure he could do anything to help her. He didn't have anything on him that he could use to fight against ghosts, and he was really regretting not getting a weapon from Valerie. But thinking about it, he realized that they probably would have taken any weapon off him when they threw him into the dungeon cell.

A laugh bubbled out of him, and he snorted as he swiftly walked down one hall toward a staircase that they took on their way to the tower. Some people thought his parents were losing their marbles with some of the inventions they came up with, but Danny realized now that a weapon that looked innocuous would be a huge help right now. The lipstick blaster that his mother carried on her all the time would have gone unnoticed by the guards, allowing Danny at least one weapon at his disposal.

The clink of armor alerted him, and Danny darted through a wall to avoid being seen by the guard. The fact that the guards wore armor, therefore making them not so quiet in their movements, was a great advantage to him. He could tiptoe around the castle and easily avoid being seen while the guards clamored around as if they were kicking pots and pans all over the place. After he cast a quick glance around the room he ran into, Danny breathed a sigh, relief rushing through him, when he found no one occupying the room. He needed to be careful where he ducked into in case he popped into a room that was filled with guards all ready to grab him the moment they spotted him.

Danny hurried to one side of the room and stuck his head through the wall, checking that it was empty. He moved through the castle in that manner, occasionally checking how near he was to the staircase. When he reached a room aligned with the staircase, he started to walk through the wall but stopped when he spotted a guard. Green eyes glanced his way, and Danny's breath hitched, certain that the guard saw him. Then the dark armored knight turned and walked down the staircase. After a few moments passed, Danny released his breath, but he couldn't help thinking that it was odd that the guard ignored him like that.

With a frown, he left the room, stepping into the hall as his brow furrowed thickly. He cautiously started down the stairs, keeping watch that he wasn't following too close to the knight. This whole thing still had that video game feel to it, and after several hundreds of hours playing them with Tucker and Sam, Danny knew a lot about sneaking around to slip past guards. But that was a game. This was real life, and his heart was pounding loudly in his ears. He almost thought every ghost in the castle would be able to hear it and realize right away that he was human. He reached the floor that had the throne room, and his panic was reaching new heights. The only thing that kept him moving was the fact that Dorathea might be in trouble.

Danny walked along the wall outside the throne room but froze when he saw the same dark armored knight at the end of the hall. Again, he was certain that the knight was staring at him, but then he turned the corner and walked down the hall with the door to the throne room. The oddity settled over Danny. Why did the knight ignore him? Why didn't he try to capture Danny and drag him in front of King Pariah for punishment? He didn't understand, but he couldn't let it distract him. He walked part way down the hall then peeked his head through the wall. Quickly, he yanked it back, hoping that no one in the throne room spotted him. Then he walked down several paces down the hall and tried again. He was behind one of the tapestries, well hidden from sight, and he stepped through the wall so that no passing guards would see him.

"You can let go of me now," Dorathea said, and Danny could envision her head tilted upward as she wrenched her arm free from the guard's hold. "I would have come if you simply asked. There was no need for you to manhandle me. I'm still a princess."

"Leave us," ordered someone, and Danny recognized the voice from when he was previously in the throne room.

Danny clenched his teeth at that commanding tone and forced himself not to respond, remaining still behind the tapestry. The sound of metal clanking suggested that the knight bowed to him as the door to the throne room creaked open. He heard more sounds of the guard's armor. When he listened carefully, he realized that there were two of them. One was walking to the exit, and the other one was walking to the throne. Then the door closed, the noise resounding through the quiet throne room.

"I did not call for your presence," the ghost said, and Danny realized that that voice must belong to King Pariah. He felt like smacking his forehead for not realizing that fact earlier.

"What reason have you for seeking an audience with Princess Dorathea?" questioned the new guard. Danny's brow furrowed, recalling that voice. It took him a moment to place it as the one that spoke to King Pariah, the one informing him that King Plasmius still hadn't sent word about the request for his surrender in exchange for the life of his son. Danny's hands curled into fists, his eyes squinting at the back of the tapestry, as he recalled that. Why wouldn't King Plasmius do anything when he heard word that his son was captured by his foe?

"Seek an audience?" King Pariah parroted, a hint of rage underlying his tone. "Do you forget who you serve, Fright Knight? I," his voice thundered through the room, making Danny quake, "am your king."

"Forgive me, my liege." The Fright Knight bowed. "I meant nothing by that. I only wondered why you would wish to see the princess after keeping her locked away for so long."

There was movement, and Danny had to assume that King Pariah stood. "Clearly, you have not been doing your job if you have not heard that my prisoner escaped."

"The prince," the Fright Knight sounded rather confused, "escaped? That should not be possible, my liege."

"It certainly should not," King Pariah agreed. "Yet when the guards went to check on him, he was no longer in the dungeon. I have reason to believe that Princess Dorathea has something to do with this. One of my knights told me she was seen out of her room today."

"I leave my room every day," Princess Dorathea admitted with a sniff in her voice. "Your knights merely ignore my presence as if I were a simple handmaiden. No," she corrected, "worse than that as they do not bother to flirt with me as they so mercilessly do with the handmaidens of this castle."

"You," King Pariah growled, "went to the dungeons. You freed Prince Phantom. You cannot deny it. You are the only one within these walls with motives to free him."

"My apologies, King Pariah, but I have not been to the dungeons nor have I seen Phantom recently." If any ghost in the throne room had the ability to detect lies, they would find nothing but truth from Dorathea. It was true that she hadn't gone down to the dungeons to free him, and as he wasn't the real Phantom, it was true that she hadn't seen the true prince. Danny had to smile at that fact.

The smack echoed in the throne room, and Danny's heart jumped, sticking in throat like a lead lump blocking his airway.

"Do. Not. Lie. To me." The roar of King Pariah's voice made even the walls tremble, and Danny shook at the rage vibrating through him.

"My liege!" the Fright Knight shouted urgently. "I do not believe she is lying."

"Get out of the way!" A clattered of metal followed then a startled scream.

Danny couldn't continue standing in hiding, doing nothing more than listening, anymore. He had to act, even if he had to risk his own freedom and life. He couldn't allow Dorathea to be harmed to protect him. That was a weight that he refused to bare until his death in this place.

Surging forward out of his hiding spot, Danny shouted, "Hey, tin can!"

Dorathea's red eyes widened in horror as she stared at him. Her arm was engulfed by the giant hand of a ghost larger than any Danny had ever seen. He gulped as his eyes trailed up the enormous form, and fear filled him at the face twisted with rage, scarred and an eye patch hiding one eye. Horns sprouted from the sides of his head, but one was broken, snapped to one third the length of the other. He was an intimidating ghost that left Danny with the feeling of being an insignificant gnat in vastness of the universe. The knight that Danny had seen along his way back to the throne room stood next to them with his purple cape flowing like fire behind him. Pariah released his hold on Dorathea, throwing her aside like a piece of garbage, as he turned to Danny. The Fight Knight was there to catch Dorathea before she stumble to the floor.

"How nice of you to reveal yourself, Prince." Pariah reached a hand to his waist a drew out his sword. "I have lost patience waiting for your father to surrender to me. You have outlived your usefulness. Such a shame you will have to end your existence with the knowledge that your father cared nothing for you."

The sword sang through the air, and Danny threw himself flat upon the floor as it passed over him, much too close for comfort. His heart pounded as he turned wide, terrified eyes upon Pariah Dark. He very nearly lost his head!

"Dora, run for it!" Danny shouted, scrambling to his feet as Pariah brought his sword up in preparation to thrust it downward and skewer him through the middle. He jumped away as the tip of the blade pierced the stone flooring. Glancing toward the princess, Danny saw her struggling to throw off the knight's hold on her. But he had little time to focus on her when Pariah freed his sword from the floor. His good eye glowered down at Danny, who swallowed as fear paralyzed him for a moment.

"You think being the son of Plasmius makes you something special?" Pariah loomed over him, and Danny stumbled back away from him. "You are still so young. You lack the power and knowledge to rule over the Ghost Zone. In my absence, the Ghost Zone has lost all sense. The ghosts are weak. I will overthrow all the kings that thought to rule in my stead. I will return the Ghost Zone to its former glory."

Danny snorted, despite the fear eating at him. "And by glory, you mean being a tyrant that rules everyone through fear? Yeah, I don't think the Ghost Zone needs you to return it to its so-called former glory. It's doing just fine without you, so you can go back to your confinement or wherever you've been for the past few hundred years or so and just leave the rest of us alone."

Pariah's jaw clenched, and anger filled his eye. He raised up his sword for another attempt to slash Danny open. The ghost moved too fast, and Danny couldn't react in time to avoid being struck. The blade tore into his shoulder, slamming him backward as Dorathea screamed. Danny gritted his teeth, but when the sword was ripped out of him, he couldn't stop a scream of his own from tearing out of him. Blood spurted out, splattering upon the floor as it oozed from his wound. In the silence that followed, Danny dropped to his knees, pressing a hand to his bleeding shoulder.

"What is this?" Pariah demanded. He twisted around to where the Fright Knight still held Dorathea, keeping her from running over to Danny. "Why is there a human here? Where is the real Prince Phantom?"

Danny laughed, despite his injury. He turned gaze upward as Pariah faced him again. "How sad for you," he said with a crooked smirk though he grimaced in pain. "You thought you had a trump card to use against King Plasmius and force his surrender. Instead all you have is a useless pawn that no one cares about."

Pariah shook with his fury. Then he lifted the sword high above his head, ready to bring it down upon Danny, who wasn't sure he could move fast enough despite knowing it was coming. The blade descended, and his breath stopped, his legs refusing to move, his body frozen in place with his eyes wide. Metal clashed against metal, and for a moment, all Danny saw was bright purple. He gasped as if the lump blocking his breath was suddenly forced out of him. The Fight Knight stood before him with his arms raised and Pariah's sword nearly cracking the black gauntlet he wore.

"My liege, I cannot allow you to kill him," the Fright Knight said, calm and steady, and Danny gawked, hardly believing that a loyal subject of King Pariah would betray him.


	19. Chapter 19

"This is really bad," Dorathea said, worry causing her brow to furrow as Danny sucked in a sharp breath through clenched teeth. Her hands were coated in his blood, and her skirt was ripped to the knees in her effort to make it into bandages to wrap his injured shoulder.

"You're pretty good at that though," Danny said, observing the work she did at dressing his injury. The soft blue of her skirt was spotted with his blood, but the coolness of the fabric felt nice. It was like icing an injury, except it wasn't a simple scrape or bruise. His shoulder was impaled by a sword, and he was definitely going to need to make trip to the hospital whenever he made it back to the real world. _Assuming I don't die here first_ , he thought with a deep set frown. He couldn't allow that kind of negative thinking to distract him. His first task was to get Dorathea out of this place.

"I used to help tend to the injured in my kingdom," Dorathea explained as she lowered her gaze, tucking back a lock of blonde hair. It was loose from the rope that she wore when he first met her, and it was oddly cut and uneven now after their run through the castle. Her arm was bandaged too, from wrist to elbow after receiving a grazing cut from one of the guard's swords as they fought their way through to a quiet place to hide within the castle and recover for a moment.

"That's pretty cool of you." Danny grimaced as he tried to pull his shirt and jacket back on, but moving his arm sent waves of agony radiating from where the sword pierced him. Dorathea did her best to help him without making his injury worse. "I bet the people of your kingdom would have preferred it if you became queen, over your brother becoming king. Royalty that takes the time to show care for her people? They must love you." He smiled at her, and Dorathea bowed her head with a small blush darkening her green cheeks.

"My parents always told me that I should do my best to relate to my people."

Danny held up a finger to his mouth, and Dorathea fell silent. They stood in the cramped little closet of one room, listening to the sounds of guards dashing about outside in search of them. When all was quiet again, Danny breathed a sigh and almost leaned back against the wall before remembering that he couldn't actually touch the walls. He rubbed at his forehead, thinking back on everything that happened in the last half an hour. Or had it been an hour now? It was hard to keep track of time in the Ghost Zone, but even more difficult when they were racing around like crazy.

After Danny was stabbed with the sword, the Fight Knight had come to his rescue, saving him from certain death at the hands of King Pariah. Dorathea responded quickly while Pariah was distracted by his knight's traitorous action. She grabbed hold of Danny, dragging him to his feet and urging him to follow her. They escaped from the throne room as the Fright Knight blocked Pariah's way from chasing after them. Pariah, however, had plenty of other guards and knights to hunt them through the castle.

But it still didn't make any sense to him. Why would the Fright Knight turn on his king?

"What do you think happened back there?" With his brow drawn together, Danny glanced at Dorathea, hoping to find an answer.

Dorathea shook her head. "Forgive me. I do not know what has gotten into the Fright Knight. He has always been King Pariah's most loyal subject. It - There is no logical explanation that I can think of to explain why he would turn on his king to protect a mere human." Her red eyes widened a touch, and her hand lifted to cover her mouth. "I do not mean anything bad by calling you a mere human. It is just that, well-"

Danny held up a hand to stop her as he shook his head. "It's okay. I'm not offended. Anyway," he sighed as he glanced around the closet which housed very little of actual use, "we need to get you out of here. Now that the circlet is off, you're free to leave the castle."

"I cannot just leave you here!" Dorathea objected, horrified by the suggestion that she leave without him.

" _You_ have to be the one to get out of here," Danny insisted firmly. "Even if you have to leave me behind. You're a princess here. You can go to that King Plasmius and tell him everything that happened." He really didn't expect any king of the Ghost Zone to care even remotely about him, as he was simply a human, but he hung onto a small speck of hope that Dorathea could convince King Plasmius to rally his troops and rescue him from Pariah's castle.

"No." Dorathea shook her head in refusal. "I do not leave here without you. What-"

The door of the closet suddenly flew open, and Dorathea shrieked as she ducked. Danny barely managed to stumble back through the wall as a sword was thrust into the closet. He choked on a squeak when the tip of the blade stabbed through the wall. If he had reacted a few seconds slower, that sword could have struck his throat. Reaching up with his good hand, he rubbed at his throat, thankful for the quick reaction.

When Danny darted back through and into the closet, the guard was struggling to yank his sword free from the wall. Danny rammed forward, knocking the guard onto his back. Then he grabbed hold of Dorathea's arm and pulled her to her feet. Why didn't they think to move sooner, he wondered as they ran from the room? While the guards would be checking everywhere for them, nowhere was safe. They had to keep moving to stay ahead of the search party.

"No."

"What?" Dorathea questioned, drawing Danny's attention to the fact that he had spoken out loud.

"Oh, um." Danny yanked her down another hall as a guard spotted them, shouting to his comrades of their location. "I was thinking. Running around and hiding isn't really doing us much good. We needed a moment to stop because I was bleeding all over the place. But now that you wrapped up my arm, I think we should make a break for it. His guards might follow, but if you can fly fast enough, we might reach King Plasmius' castle before they can capture us."

"That might be possible." They hurried down a staircase to a lower level of the castle.

"You sound doubtful." Danny frowned, and they both ducked as a guard at the bottom of the staircase swung his sword at them. "Will I be too heavy for you?"

"I am not sure." Dorathea kicked with her right foot, managing to aim it perfectly to hit the guard in the crotch. Danny had to wince as the guard groaned and dropped to the ground. "I have never really tried flying while holding someone," she explained, carefully stepping over the guard like she was trying to avoid stepping in a puddle. "I think we would have better luck if I was able to transform into a dragon. But," she sighed in despair, "I cannot without my amulet."

Danny nodded in understanding. There seemed to be a hiccup to every plan they thought up, and it was growing tiresome. "We can still try," he said as they continued down the hall. "If you can't carry my weight, we'll just think of some other way to get away from here."

"I am truly sorry." Dorathea stumbled. They were both growing tired of all the running. "If I were stronger, I could be of more help to you."

Danny halted, grabbing hold of the ghost's arm to force her to stop and turn to face him. "You have been a big help. Don't ever think that a lack of physical strength means you aren't useful."

"That is very kind of you to say." Dorathea bowed her head slightly, but her gaze drifted to something down the hall. "But I think it wise if we did not linger here."

Danny turned his head then gulped when he saw the large form of Pariah Dark growing slowly bigger as he stormed down the hall toward them. "Right. Lingering is bad." He grabbed hold of Dorathea's arm to pull her the opposite way, but he froze. Behind them stood a mob of guards, blocking their way. Danny tried to breathe deep and even as his heart pounded with fear in his chest. He could slip through a wall to escape, but that would mean leaving Dorathea behind to face the guards and Pariah by herself. They had tried early on when they were first running away, but even when in contact, Dorathea couldn't follow him through a wall.

"Trapped like rats at last."

Danny twisted around, keeping Dorathea behind him, though there was little he could do to protect her. He regretted that they never found an armory in the castle so that they could grab some weapons for protection. Setting his jaw, he glared up at the horned ghost. "How does it feel?" Danny tried to sound cocky despite that he thought he might be shaking like a leaf. He smirked as confusion flickered in the king's one good eye. "Having your most loyal knight turn on you? Man, that's got to wound your pride. And wow! Your minions must be really dumb. They thought _I_ was a ghost?" He laughed and hoped it didn't sound hysterical to everyone else. "I guess getting good help really _is_ hard."

"Daniel, perhaps you should not-" Dorathea's hands curled at the back of his shirt.

"You," Pariah roared, the fury flashing upon his face. He raised his sword, and Danny gulped, agreeing with the princess. He really shouldn't. Taunting the large and powerful ghost really wasn't a wise idea.

As the sword came down upon them, the wall beside them suddenly exploded. Without even a moment of thought, Danny spun around and pushed Dorathea to the ground, covering the princess to protect her as stone and other debris showered the hall. When all quieted down, Danny dared to lift himself up and glance around the hall as the dust settled around them. The guards lay on the ground, knocked down by the blast. Some were crushed under the debris, and others were trying to help the wounded. Sitting up on his knees, Danny twisted around to see Pariah. Bright red, unnatural for a human, bled down the side of his face where a large piece of the wall struck his head. If possible, he looked even more furious than a moment ago.

"I do not know how you managed that," Pariah growled, stalking forward with his sword gripped tightly within his hand.

Silver flashed before his eyes, the blade swinging toward him and Dorathea, but this time, Danny gathered up his courage. He snatched up Dorathea's hand as he surged to his feet, dragging her with him. The sword crashed down on the floor where they had laid, the stone cracking upon impact. Danny gulped, realizing if he hadn't acted the sword could have easily sliced them into two. Pariah recovered far faster than the guard that found them in the closet. He ripped the sword free of the floor, chunks of it falling to the floor beneath them. His sword swept around toward them again, but it clashed against metal.

It happened so quickly that for a moment, Danny could only see the blade of the sword coming toward him. In the next blink of an eye, a white cape snapped before his gaze as a glowing pink sword blocked Pariah's attack. Danny reached behind him, making sure Dorathea was still there as he kept their backs to the wall.

"This ends now, Pariah," shouted the ghost before Pariah as their swords remained locked together.

"Capture his troops!" ordered another ghost that entered through the hole punched through the wall with that explosion. He held a green sword that he pointed in the direct of the guards down the hall. More ghosts dressed in armor flooded into the hall at his directions.

"You can't defeat me, Plasmius!" Pariah shouted as their sword met again. Danny watched as they continued their fight, but Plasmius, as Pariah called him, was managing to drive the larger ghost away from them, moving their battle away from anyone that might be hurt.

"Princess Dora!"

Danny snapped his head back around as the ghost with the green sword approached them. The ghost reached up to lift the helmet he wore from his head, and Danny blinked widening eyes when it was revealed to be Phantom.

"Prince Phantom!" Dorathea darted out from behind Danny and threw her arms around his neck. "Ah, it is good to see you again!"

"I'm sorry that it's under these conditions." Phantom frowned when she pulled away from him. "And I apologize that it took us so long to arrive." His bright green eyes turned onto Danny, and one of his eyebrows lifted. "Though perhaps you were at least in good hands."

Danny shifted awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck with his good hand. "I guess it's a bit weird meeting someone dressed up like you." His cheeks warmed with embarrassment.

Phantom laughed. "Have you seen some of my fans? I think I get at least three or four people dressed exactly like me at appearances and concerts. Though," he held a gauntleted hand to his chin and considered Danny for a moment, "you are definitely the best one I've seen."

"Perhaps this is not the best time for this sort of chat," Dorathea interrupted, her gaze darting briefly to the knights battling down the hall from them then to Danny's injured shoulder.

"Right." Phantom nodded. "I should aid my men." He gestured, and another armored ghost quickly appeared at his side. "Take Princess Dorathea and her human companion back to the castle. See that their injuries are tended to and that food from the real world is brought in for the human."

The knight bowed to Phantom then stepped up toward Danny, who started to raise his hand and tell the ghost not to bother. With a defeated sigh, he realized that the only way he was getting away from this castle was in the arms of a ghost. As Dorathea didn't feel she was strong enough to carry him, Danny had no other choice but to allow the knight to do it. He didn't complain as the knight lifted him into his arms, carrying him like a bride over a threshold, but he felt rather embarrassed about it. He was glad no one from Amity Park was here to see him at the moment. As the knight led them away, Danny glanced back over his shoulder toward the dreary castle where the sounds of fighting grew more distant. He was glad to leave it behind, hoping to never see that castle again.


	20. Chapter 20

"I think it's probably safe for me to return to the real world," Danny said tiredly as he was forced to sit in the infirmary of the castle. It was a much nicer looking castle than the one that he was stuck in as Pariah's prisoner. More than just guards milled around the halls, and the ghosts all seemed in much happier, and friendlier, spirits.

"Prince Phantom ordered me to bring you to the castle. He gave no orders about returning you to the real world," said the knight that carried him away from Pariah's castle. He came off a bit stiff, but he was at least loyal to his prince. "Your food should arrive shortly." He gazed down at Danny, but there was no disgust in his red eyes. "You are probably starving after your stay in King Pariah's castle."

Danny couldn't deny that. Now that he wasn't fearing for his life, the hunger really hit him. He was actually close to just passing out on the bed and sleeping for the next few hours. Or days. He felt so exhausted and drained after everything that happened at Pariah's castle.

Princess Dorathea was only in the infirmary with him for a few moments as one of the doctors examined the injuries she received then she disappeared from the room to where Danny wasn't sure. Reaching up, he held a hand to his injured shoulder. The doctors weren't used to tending to the injuries of a living person, but they patched up his shoulder fairly well. It was now all stitched up and bandaged, and the doctor that worked on him said that he should recover full use of his arm in a week or so. For now, lifting the arm too high hurt and risked pulling his stitches, so Danny tried not to move it too much.

"I said I would bring it to him!"

Danny sat up a bit straighter, growing more alert when he recognized the voice shouting out in the hall. The door to the infirmary flew open in the next moment as Skulker stormed in with a pair of knights trailing behind him, failing to hold off the robotic suited ghost. Green eyes flashed across the room until they landed on Danny, and Skulker made a beeline straight for the bed where Danny sat. When he moved, arms out wide like he was about to hug Danny, Skulker was blocked by the knight that brought Danny to the castle. He whipped out his sword in seconds, and he held it to Skulker's throat.

"State your name and business?" the knight demanded.

"Hey," Skulker growled, batting away the sword like it was nothing more than a stick. "I'm an ally to your kingdom."

The knight snorted. "You? A rogue? Ally to our kingdom?"

"Hey, hey," Danny shouted, climbing to his feet as he waved his good arm to get their attentions. "He's a friend of mine. You don't have to go all overprotective knight on him."

The knight frowned at him, but after a moment, he huffed a sigh and sheathed his sword again. "My apologies. But Prince Phantom wouldn't wish any harm to befall you."

"How's that?" Skulker asked with a smirk as he nudged an elbow into Danny's ribs. "Prince Phantom cares."

Danny rolled his eyes, but it made him wonder why exactly Phantom would have any great concern for him. This thing with Pariah was a matter among royalty within the Ghost Zone. Being a human, Danny held no significance. He was merely an accidental pawn used to force another king's hand.

"What are you even doing here, Skulker?" Danny asked, directing the conversation toward a topic where he could actually get some answers. "And next time we send you off on a mission in the Ghost Zone, we are definitely giving you some way to contact us from time to time."

"Well, after I return to the Ghost Zone to search for Phantom-"

" _Prince_ Phantom," the knight insisted with his mouth pursed in anger that Skulker dared to speak of his prince on such friendly terms.

"Yeah, yeah." Skulker rolled his eyes. "It didn't take me long to track him down to this kingdom and discover his true identity. I probably should have gone back to the real world to explain the situation, but after talking with _Prince_ Phantom," Skulker glared at the knight with a tiny smirk pulling at his metal mouth, "and King Plasmius, I stayed on to help them with their plans to topple King Pariah before he could grow too powerful. I'm the one that designed the bomb they used to blow up the wall of King Pariah's castle." He smiled proudly, puffing out his chest.

Danny grinned. "Tell something like that to Ember, and maybe she'll be impressed by you."

Skulker rubbed below his nose as his metal cheek faintly gave the impression of blushing. "Anyway, here." He held out a paper bag to Danny, who recognized it immediately.

"Nasty Burger!" Danny grabbed the bag with his good hand and dropped back onto the bed, eager to dig into the bag and start stuffing his face. "You're a life saver!"

"We're the ones who got it," muttered one of the guards that had clung to Skulker, trying to stop him, when he stormed into the infirmary.

"Thanks!" Danny grinned at him then took a giant bite out of the burger. The two guards and the knight wrinkled their noses at the sloppy eating, but Danny really couldn't care about their opinions of his eating habits. He was starving, not knowing how much time passed since he was kidnapped until now, and he was more than thankful to satisfy the hunger gnawing at his insides. After a few bites and swallowing, Danny glanced over to the knight. "How long do I have to stay here exactly?" He winced, realizing that he probably missed the radio show, and he wondered how much yelling he would have to sit through when he saw Sam and Tucker again.

"Until King Plasmius and Prince Phantom return," the knight answered, and Danny sighed tiredly, almost losing his appetite at the idea of a long wait. It already felt like he had sat in the infirmary for hours after the doctor finished with his shoulder.

"Well, there's no reason for him be stuck here, right?" Skulker asked and slapped Danny on the back.

"Oh, please don't do that!" Danny gritted his teeth, holding back a shout as his shoulder burned with agony. Skulker winced, retracting his hand as the knight glared at him.

"I only meant that while he's here, he might as well get to look around the castle a bit," Skulker explained, keeping his hands to himself. "It's gotta be boring just sitting around here doing nothing."

Danny glanced toward the knight as he chewed on another mouthful of his hamburger. The knight frowned, the corner of his eyes crinkled as he glared at Skulker. Danny thought for certain that the knight would refuse any and everything that Skulker suggested.

"I'll only allow it if I escort you," the knight finally said then glanced toward the two guards. "You two are dismissed. Aren't you still on duty?"

The two guards blinked then scrambled to salute the knight before they marched out of the infirmary. When they were alone, just the three of them in the quiet infirmary, Danny stuffed the burger wrapper into the bag and wiped his hands and face clean on the napkins provided inside it.

"Do you have a name?" Danny asked the knight as he stood. "It seems kind of silly to keep thinking of you as 'the knight.'"

"I am Sir Elyan."

"Funny. I was thinking Sir Stick in the Mud." Skulker joked and received a sword pressed against his metal throat in response by the angry knight.

"Hey!" Danny cut in between the two, trying to defuse the situation. "How about you not anger Sir Elyan again?" He gave Skulker a pointed glare, and the hunter huffed, disappointment in his gaze. He could see it in Skulker's expression that he enjoyed pushing the buttons of the stiff knight, but that would hardly be productive if the two of them started bickering at each other. "So where should we go first? I prefer not seeing the dungeons. Sorry, but I don't have the fondest of memories for that kind of place." He wasn't tortured while in his prison cell, but he still didn't want to go near the dungeons.

"Perhaps the gardens would be a more peaceful place to take a stroll," Sir Elyan suggested as he led the way out of the infirmary.

"Oh, the gardens," Skulker said with a snort. "Wouldn't you be more interested in seeing the armory?" He threw an arm over Danny's shoulders, being careful not to cause any pain to Danny's injury.

"Daniel!"

At the call of his name, Danny turned around, smiling when he saw Princess Dorathea coming down the hall toward them. Then he blinked in surprise at her change in appearance. Her hair was cut short, barely brushing over her shoulders, and she had opt against wearing a new dress. Instead, she wore armor, including a silver chest plate engraved with a lioness on its hind legs. For a moment, Danny could only stare at the image she made all decked out in the light armor. She looked stunning, like a fierce warrior about to do battle.

"Dora, I - What?" Danny stumbled over his words.

"She insisted on the new look," answered another ghost that stood at the princess' side. She placed her hands on her hips and rolled the single red eye, her other one hidden behind a curtain of ebony hair.

"Well, I should look the part if I plan to lead a rebellion when I return to my kingdom," Princess Dorathea said, placing a hand to her hip where a sword hung. "First course of action is learning how to use this thing."

"That's great!" Danny smiled brightly, happy that Dorathea would be taking the throne from her brother.

"I was telling her that she could just asking King Plasmius to aid her in freeing her kingdom from her idiot brother," said the ebony hair ghost, "but she claims she _has_ to do this by herself."

"Sounds like the wisest decision," Skulker said. "A kingdom needs a leader that's strong. If she wants her people's support, she should show them that she has the strength to take the throne without the aid of another kingdom."

"There's nothing wrong with asking for a little help sometimes though." The female ghost huffed as if tired of hearing men talk about playing with their swords.

Another ghost came running down the hall. He looked far younger than Sir Elyan with ill fitted armor that hung awkwardly on his thin frame. His freckles stuck out sharply on his pale green flesh. "Sir!" He came to a halt before their group, saluting his fellow knight. "King Plamius and Prince Phantom have returned. They wish to see Princess Dorathea and the human in the war room."

"Thank you, Geoffrey." Sir Elyan tilted his head in a small bow. "You are dismissed. Return to your watch." After another salute, Geoffrey raced off back down the hall. "Well, I suppose a tour of the castle will have to wait for another time. Follow me, if you will." He led them through the halls of the castle until they arrived at a large roundish room with a table in the center that took up a majority of the room.

"Ah, thank you, Sir Elyan," said the older of the two ghosts in the room, lifting his head after the group entered. He had strange bluish skin and his raven locks were slicked back into a ponytail. A crown floated upon his head, engulfed in green flames. Standing up, he walked around to take Princess Dorathea's hand and brought it up to kiss the back of it. "Always a pleasure to see you, Princess. I beg your forgiveness that we did not act sooner to save you."

Dorathea shook her head. "You hardly need to make apologies to me, King Plasmius. I knew you would not attack King Pariah unless you were certain that you could defeat him."

The king nodded. "It did take quite a bit of time to procure a certain," he reached up to touch the crown upon his head, "artifact."

The prince joined them. Still in his armor, cut with marks obviously made by swords, Phantom stood tall, confidence radiating off him. He had always been stylish and good looking, but now he truly looked like a prince. "We didn't have the chance to properly introduce ourselves before," he said, his green eyes fixed upon Danny. "I must confess I was greatly surprised to hear that my manager managed to find a perfect replacement during my absence."

"He was a little mad about it," Skulker whispered to Danny.

A flush burned on Phantom's face, turning his cheeks a soft shade of green. "Who wouldn't be a little upset to hear that they were easily replaced by someone?" He coughed into his hand. "Anyway, when we received the demand from King Pariah, we were ready to completely ignore it. But our spy sent a message to us with that demand. He told us that King Pariah was holding someone prisoner who looked exactly like me. After hearing about you from Skulker, we knew that the message had to be talking about you. And since you were filling in for me, I thought it my fault that you were kidnapped. I couldn't allow you to remain in the hands of King Pariah, especially since there was a good chance that he would kill you when you were no longer a useful pawn to him."

"Well, I'm definitely thankful that you showed up when you did. Pariah was about the chop us in half." Danny rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck.

"I do have one question." King Plasmius folded his arms as his red eyes flicked over Danny's body. "The Fright Knight has been my inside man from the moment King Pariah woke. He became my loyal subject many years ago, and he was perfect to act as a double agent. When Princes Dorathea arrived at King Pariah's castle, the Fright Knight planned to help her escape, but he messaged us that it was impossible because the circlet she wore prevented her from leaving the walls of the castle." He frowned at Danny. "How did you manage to remove the circlet?"

Danny's cheeks warmed. The whole idea seemed rather silly now. "Uh, well, I thought it if was somehow possible to name myself royalty, I would be able to remove the circlet."

"That is impossible," King Plamius argued bluntly. "You cannot just name yourself a king."

"Dora did a coronation type thing," Danny said with a shrug of his good shoulder. "You know, crowned me and pronounced me king. When I tried, I could lift the circlet from her head. I don't know why it worked, but it did."

King Plasmius stared at Dorathea. "Crowned him? With what did you crown him?"

"Oh!" Danny's eyes widened, and he stuck his hand into his pocket. "I wanted to return this to you the moment we were safe from Pariah." He held out the ring to Dorathea.

"That-" Phantom's eyes widened. "Is that really it?"

King Plasmius' eyebrows lifted in surprise. "All this time, you held the Ring of Rage?"

Dorathea blinked. "Is that what it's called? My father never said it was anything special."

King Plasmius nodded with a thoughtful crease of his brow. "Yes, in possession of the Ring of Rage, I can see this human gaining the power to remove the circlet from your head. It is a powerful artifact, but it's full potential can only be accessed when combined with the Crown of Fire." He gestured to the crown upon his head.

"Perhaps you should have the Ring as well," Dorathea said, offering it to him.

King Plasmius shook his head. "I think it best not to have them together." He closed Dorathea's hand about the ring. "Your father give it to you. I would not take it from you." He smiled kindly at her.


	21. Chapter 21

"I can't wait to take out these contacts," Danny said, resisting the urge to rub at his eyes in irritation. He wore the contacts for far too long, and he suspected that his eyes were probably red by now. If he had his glasses with him, they probably would be broken by now, but if they had somehow survived everything that happened at Pariah's castle, he could take out the darn contacts.

"It's strange." Phantom frowned as he stared at Danny, his brow wrinkling just slightly as he scrutinized the human before him. He abandoned the armor after their meeting in the war room, adopting the look that Danny was more familiar seeing on him. It now seemed completely out of place on him when they were standing in the grand throne room awaiting a portal to open, that they were told was definitely going to open in this spot in a matter of minutes. "People could probably mistake us for twins."

Danny laughed, rubbing the back of his neck with an awkward feeling. Until the whole thing started with him posing as Phantom's fill in, he never would have noticed the resemblance between them. "Great," he muttered with a sigh as a thought hit him. "I bet Mr. Masters will want to use this to his advantage. If I can fill in so well for you, why not have us collaborate on a song here and there?"

"That actually might be fun," Phantom said with a grin, gaining a surprised look from Danny, who already couldn't believe that Ember would want to have him sing with her on a few songs for her next album. Danny reached up to rub at his head, feeling a bit dizzy and overwhelmed of singing along side two of his favorite singers. "Of course," Phantom continued, easily glossing right over the surprise on Danny's face. "If you don't want to, you are completely free to say no. You've already done far more than I could have asked by filling in for me in the real world and helping Princess Dorathea."

Danny shook his head. "Actually, I am a bit nervous about going back," he confessed with a wince. "My teachers aren't going to be happy with my disappearance. My friends are going to be worried, but they'll probably yell at me for missing out on the show. I don't even want to know how things will go with Valerie."

Phantom visibly shuddered, which seemed an odd reaction when he was a prince who had led an army against Pariah. "Val is scary when she's angry. I probably should have gone back before to explain the situation to her and my manager, but," he shrugged, "I got caught up with things going on here."

Danny could understand that. With a tyrant king seeking to resume complete control over the Ghost Zone, Phantom likely had his hands full helping his father plan the best way to beat him. "But," he said, frowning as he glanced toward Phantom, "I'm still curious about the whole disappearing act. Why didn't you just give Valerie a heads up before leaving?"

"I wasn't aware. If I had known what was about to happen, I would have said something." Phantom stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket then started on recounting what happened the night he disappeared.

 

"I love your music!"

A sigh almost managed to escape him when yet another woman exclaimed the exact same thing that all his other fans would shout at him. Phantom appreciated that they enjoyed his music. After all, without his fans, he would never be able to perform his music all over the world like he dreamed. He would be stuck in the Ghost Zone, following in his father's footsteps. The world, of course, had no idea that he was actually a ghost. For months before he was even allowed to make an appearance when he first started out, his manager Vlad Masters forced him the train with another rising talent Ember McLain until Phantom mastered the ability to turn his body tangible.

Currently, that was an ability that he wished he could simply forget about as the woman pressed up against him in the night club. The place was packed tonight, probably because people heard that he would be visiting, and the music pounded through the club like a throbbing pulse inside his head as multicolored lights flashed from the strobes and reflected off a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. There was, however, no reason for the woman to be pushing up against him as if they were all crammed into the club like sardines in a can. It was like this almost everywhere he went. The moment he was spotted in public, he was mobbed by wild groups of fan girls, and sometimes it made him wish he could just disappear, except doing that would give away his identity as a ghost.

"Can I get your autograph?" the woman asked, smiling sweetly as she fluttered long lashes at him.

Phantom glanced her over, frowning inwardly when he saw she had nothing on hand for him to actually sign. The woman wore a vibrant red dress that was much too tight, hugging her curves in a way that made slight bulges appear at her sides. Her brunette hair had terrible blonde streaks through it that looked like she probably did it herself. The fact that she wore far too much makeup that wasn't very flattering on her only added to his opinion that she didn't have a professional do her hair.

"Where would you like me to sign?" Phantom asked, raising her hand with long fake nails up to his mouth so that he could lay a kiss upon the back of it as he smiled charmingly at her. Sometimes he really hated himself for acting like this, but it was ingrained him from growing up as a prince that then became a part of his persona as a rock star. He had to act like a ladies' man, a charmer that made every woman he spoke to feel like she was somehow special to him. It was all fake, but his fans ate it up like candy. This was what they expected of him, so he indulged them.

The woman flushed, bowing her head as she lowered brown eyes, the only beautiful thing about her appearance as they were untouched by unnecessary makeup or adornments. "Perhaps," she murmured softly, and her voice was nearly drowned out by the loud beat of the music surrounding them, "you could sign this." She hooked a finger around the low neckline of her dress and tugged it downward enough to reveal a lacy white bra. Phantom wished he could say that it would be the first time that he was asked to sign something like that, but it seemed to be a trend with some of his female fans. Luckily, they were always in their twenties.

Phantom was about to mention that he had nothing to sign with when a dark skinned hand suddenly appeared in his peripheral to hold out a pen. His green eyes darted behind him, and he almost glared at the smirk his bodyguard Valerie gave him. He was thankful for her presence and camaraderie as he could feel rather bored if he didn't have her to speak with during his off time as they lounged around in the apartment, that he didn't _really_ need, though it was nice having someplace to call home outside of his father's castle. But Valerie liked to tease him about some of his crazier fans. He took the pen from her, almost a little _too_ roughly. Then he turned back to his fan with a pleasant smile as he quickly signed his name on the white material of her bra. It was a little sloppy, and perhaps a bit unreadable, but the fabric wasn't exactly the best material on which to write.

"My friends are never going to believe this!" the woman said excitedly as she stared down at his name on her bra. "They're going to be so jealous."

"It's been a pleasure meeting you," Phantom said as he snapped the cap back on the pen, though the woman didn't seem to be paying him very much attention now. She had gotten out her cell phone from the purse hanging off one shoulder and was snapping a picture of the signature with the camera feature on the phone. Phantom would have felt offended, but it gave him the perfect opportunity to make a quick escape from her before she decided to make any more requests of him.

"It's been a while since anyone asked you to sign a bra," Valerie said, failing to hide the smirk that kept stretching across her face.

"We made it at least two weeks though, right?" Phantom lifted a questioning eyebrow at her as they weaved through the bodies in the club. He was growing tired, and he didn't know if he could keep up the pretense of being alive too much longer, even if the night was still young.

"I think we actually made it past a month," Valerie corrected with a teasing note. "Ah, but she broke the streak." She snapped her fingers, feigning disappointment. "We'll have to start the count over again."

"What a shame!" Phantom grinned a little when he caught her eye. Then he cast a glance about the club, glad to have one of those rare moments when he wasn't being harassed by fans. It was unfortunate that he was expected to make the occasional appearance at a night club every once and a while. Ember still did the night club circuit too, and sometimes they would go together. Phantom preferred those nights because it was much more fun when it was the two of them hanging out, and Valerie too. But Valerie wasn't supposed to stand out too much, especially if it might make it look like there was anything between him and her.

He was about to turn back to Valerie and suggest they go find a dark booth to sit at for a while when something caught his eye. Phantom swallowed, snapping his gaze away and hoping that he didn't stare for too long. The problem with being so famous was that he was easily found, even by those to whom he would rather not speak. He turned back to Valerie, who was keeping alert as usual, though it seemed she hadn't noticed what he had.

Good. That was very good.

"I think I need a moment," Phantom told Valerie, who knew exactly what that meant. She trailed behind him toward the bathrooms of the club, and after a quick check, Phantom assured her it was empty. He stepped into the men's room, closing the door behind him, then breathed out unnecessarily as he dropped the tangible act. It was a relief to return to his natural state as keeping himself tangible could consume quite a bit of energy.

Phantom shook his head then ran a hand through his white hair. He couldn't deal with this. Why did they have to show up right now? Phantom chewed on his lower lip, debating what to do as he sensed the pair moving through the club. His gaze drifted toward the bathroom door and lingered there. Valerie would kill him if he ditched her right now, but Phantom couldn't think of another way out of this. If he walked back out through the door, they would be on him in an instant. At least if he fled at the moment, he would have a head start. But where could he go?

Phantom walked toward the far end of the bathroom. If they were here at the club, he didn't want to chance going back to the apartment. Valerie would be okay since they weren't interested in her. He did have another option though. Turning invisible too, he flew through the wall and sailed through the night. He kept his senses spread wide in case they came after him. Every now and then, he felt their presence flickering on the edges.

His mouth stretched into a grin when he felt something else: a crack opening between the real world and the Ghost Zone, a natural portal that appeared and disappeared at random to allow ghosts to pass between the worlds. Phantom shot toward it, and immediately the two ghosts chasing him sped up to follow him. The portal was already starting to close by the time Phantom spotted it just up ahead of him. He twisted around and saw the two ghosts closing in on him. Ugly looking goons, like rotting zombies with the bones showing through in spots where their flesh was torn away after they had dropped the human appearances they adopted at the club. Without a moment of hesitation, Phantom fired at them, shooting out a strong blast of energy that propelled right through the closing portal as his blast forced the two ghosts to veer off course to avoid being struck by his attack.

"Take that, zombie brains!" Phantom shouted, pointing at the spot where the portal closed seconds ago. That at least saved him from being hunted down by those two ghosts, for the time being.

But now he was in the Ghost Zone, and that wasn't entirely much better than being chased around by zombie ghosts. Phantom glanced around, taking in his surroundings to figure out where exactly he was at the moment. He cringed away when he spotted the familiar prison that belonged to the Warden Walker. He knew about Walker, mostly from stories from other ghosts, and he certainly didn't want to experience an encounter with the warden any time soon.

But seeing the prison gave him a good clue about where he was. Phantom drifted through the Ghost Zone, which was a lot less pleasant than the real world with the eerie swirling green sky and floating doors of various styles and shapes. He kept away from the doors as much as possible. They led into various lairs of ghosts, and some didn't take well to random intrusions. If he sank low enough, he would eventually hit a vast ground that could almost be called the bottom of the Ghost Zone where skeletal ghosts would reach out of the ground to grab at the feet of any ghosts that set foot on their land. There were many other spots like Warden Walker's prison, large floating land masses that were the lair of various ghosts. Phantom wasn't sure how ghosts came to have lairs or why some had doors into their lairs and others had floating islands. Until he went to real world to become a singer, his time was spent mostly in his father's kingdom, learning the things he would need to know for when he eventually became king. Part of that teaching involving memorizing portions of the Ghost Zone.

The ticking of a clock echoing through the area drew his attention. Phantom veered toward the noise as he kept his attention alert for any other ghosts that might be friends of the two zombie ghosts that had chased him. When he reached the source of the noise, Phantom touched down on the small stretch of land before the tall doors of a tower. He stared up at it, shaped oddly reminiscent of an old grandfather clock with scythes and skulls decorating it here and there. A section above the door showed the inside with winding stairwells and a pendulum that swung in time with each passing minute.

Phantom reached up to knock upon the door, but it swung open to allow him entry into the tower before his knuckles could even touch it. He frowned, not liking that feeling that he was expected, but then he knew the owner of the lair. Entering the tower, he floated up along the stairs to the highest point of the tower. When he touched down upon the ground again at the top of the stairs, he hesitated before walking over to where the purple cloaked ghost was currently playing chess against a bookish looking ghost.

"I'll win the game in three moves," the cloaked ghost announced with a smugness in his voice.

The bookish ghost frowned sourly, glaring through his glasses. "The game becomes increasingly less enjoyable when you say things like that." He moved his bishop across the board to capture the other ghost's pawn. "Can't you allow me at least the _illusion_ of being able to win?"

"It would appear our guest finally decided to make his appearance," the cloaked ghost murmured as he moved his rook to check his opponent's king. "Just about on time. You cut it close with the portal."

"I just needed a safe place to hide out," Phantom said, feeling rather uncertain about his decision now that he was standing there before the ghost that was the Master of Time. "They won't dare to come near your tower to get me. I assume you take no issue with me being here if you've allowed me entry." Clockwork, as he was called, didn't exactly care for visitors and often kept his lair locked up tight if he didn't wish to be bothered.

The bookish ghost growled his frustration and toppled his king before he allowed Clockwork the chance to move his queen to checkmate him.

A smirk peeked out from under the purple hood, victoriously smug. "Your presence was very much expected. I've been waiting for you, Phantom."

"Why?" Phantom asked, side eying the Time Master with suspicion. Being able to see the whole of time, it wasn't surprising that Clockwork knew Phantom would turn up on his doorstep. What worried Phantom was why Clockwork seemed happy about it. Clockwork was a rather mysterious ghost, and no one could be certain what plans he had in store.

Tearing his gaze from the chessboard, Clockwork turned a smile onto Phantom. "Because it's time to start your training. You're quite behind on it, and there's a lot you need to catch up on."

"Training?" Phantom folded his arms over his chest with a severe frown growing across his face. "What do I need to train for?" He already received training to become king from his father.

"Oh," Clockwork smirked, his red eyes seeming to glow brightly under his hood, "you already know the answer to that, don't you?"


	22. Chapter 22

"Always with the mysterious, cryptic answer."

Phantom frowned at the sound of that voice. Folding his arms, he turned around as another ghost walked up the stairs of the tower and into the room at the top. He stood tall with a regal cape of white trailing behind him. His raven hair was as neat as ever, tied back into a low ponytail. They stared at each other, neither moving toward the other.

"Father," Phantom said stiffly, his mouth pursing, after silence had passed for a few minutes with only the sound of a ticking clock filling it.

"All these years, and you never thought to stop by for a visit?" His father frowned in disapproval.

"I've been busy." Phantom resisted the urge to fidget or shift his weight or show any sign that he was uncomfortable with meeting his father again.

"Yes, I know. The young ladies of the kingdom all swoon whenever they listen to your music."

Phantom's eyebrows lifted with surprise. "You actually allow them to listen to my music?"

"Of course!" His father's brow wrinkled as if he couldn't believe his son had to ask such a question. "Regardless of how we parted all those years ago, I am quite proud of your success. I never doubted that you were an amazing singer or that you would do well in that career. But I did hope you would return sooner than this, if only to visit."

Phantom blinked, stunned to hear that from his father. They hadn't exactly parted on good terms when he left for the real world. In fact, the last time they saw each other, they did nothing but argue. Phantom wanted to leave to pursue a singing career while his father wanted him to stay and continue training as a prince. Phantom didn't understand why it was so important. His father would be on the throne for several, if not hundreds, of years to come, unless he decided to step down sooner. In that time, Phantom would be able to learn all he needed to, even if he spent a few decades in the real world as a singer. His time for that was limited because he would eventually stop aging and have to disappear before anyone took notice. He just wanted to hold onto his career as a singer for as long as he could.

"So you decided to send some goons to force me to return to the Ghost Zone?" Phantom demanded when he snapped out of his surprise. He frowned, drawing his brow together as he glared at his father.

"What goons?" The confusion on his father's face left Phantom with a feeling of dread. His father was good at manipulating the situation into his favor, but he had never lied to his son about anything. Why would he lie about this?

"The zombie pair," Phantom explained, and he tossed a glance over his shoulder to Clockwork and his bookish friend as they reset the chess board. "If you didn't send them to hunt me down and bring me back, then who did?"

"So Clockwork has not filled you in yet?" His father frowned, his attention directed toward the Master of Time.

"There's something going on?" Phantom pushed aside the frustration he felt toward his father when it came to the topic of his choice to pursue something he truly wanted. He was still a prince, and he still felt concerned about things that happened in the Ghost Zone. As a prince, it was his duty to aid in keeping the peace.

His father took a deep breath and released it slowly before he explained. "We have received reports that King Pariah has awaken and has started gathering his army and regaining his previous power. I have already ordered the Fright Knight to return to his former master to act as a spy. He sent a message recently that Princess Dorathea is being held prisoner there."

"What?" Phantom shouted. The news of Pariah seeking to rise to power again was terrifying. Pariah was sealed away hundreds of years before Phantom was ever born, but the stories of his tyranny sent chills through him. Hearing that his former babysitter, his childhood friend, was in the hands of the entire Ghost Zone's enemy enraged him. Princess Dorathea was a sweet ghost with a very kind heart who cared greatly for her people. She didn't deserve imprisonment by a cruel tyrant. "We have to save her!"

"I know!" his father shouted back, rage flashing in his red eyes. "Do you think I am a heartless king who has no care for the royalty of other kingdoms? She has been like a daughter to me when she came to our kingdom and looked after you. I do not want her in King Pariah's hands any more than you do!"

Phantom flinched. The last time he saw that kind of anger from his father was when they last saw each other and he stormed out of the castle after their fight. "Then what's the plan? How are we going to rescue her and take down Pariah?"

"Right now I'm concerned about these zombie ghosts you mentioned." His father frowned, the concern unmistakable upon his face.

"Yes," Clockwork murmured, drawing attention back to him. For a moment, Phantom had completely forgotten that they were currently in his lair. "I thought maybe you would be lucky and time would flow in the direction where remaining in the real world kept Phantom safe. But after this recent event, it's obvious that Pariah has marked you a threat, Plasmius." He lifted his gaze away from the chess board, red eyes turning onto father and son. "Phantom needs training. You've done well to prepare him in the past, but he has lost many years during his stay in the real world, and he needs to catch up quickly to be able to lead an army at your side against Pariah if you hope to save Dora. You will also need a certain artifact if you wish to actually defeat Pariah."

His father strode past him and over to where Clockwork sat playing chess. "Isn't it against your rules to intervene like this?"

"Quite true." Clockwork nodded as he moved a pawn two spaces forward. "I'm not allowed to intervene. But I can guide time to follow toward particular futures." He lifted his gaze as Phantom walked over to join his father. "I'm sure you already know what it is you need. Getting your hands on it, however, won't be an easy task."

His father frowned, concentration pulling his mouth tight. "The Crown of Fire." His red eyes narrowed when Clockwork nodded. "That has been lost, along with the Ring of Rage, since the time Pariah was put to sleep. Their locations are completely unknown to anyone."

Clockwork snorted. "I am the Master of Time. Do you honestly believe that I wouldn't know the locations of such powerful artifacts?"

"No, I suppose you would know _exactly_ where they are." His father clenched his hands at his side, and his teeth ground together.

"I can provide a hint, but you'll have to discover its exact location on your own." Clockwork leaned back, waiting as his opponent debated his next move. "While you're busy with searching for the Crown of Fire, might I suggest leaving your son here to be trained by me? The last time the men of your army saw him, Phantom was only fourteen. A child still in their eyes. When they next see him, Phantom needs to be seen as a leader. He'll be safe within my tower until your return with the Crown of Fire. His energy will be masked so that Pariah's men won't be able to track him."

His father turned his gaze onto him, and Phantom thought he saw reluctance in those red eyes. "I will trust that your motives in this case at least align with mine. I cannot imagine that you would want King Pariah returning to power."

"No, I really don't," Clockwork agreed with a shake of his head.

"Then give me your hint so I can start the search for the Crown of Fire," his father demanded.

"The hint is right before you." Clockwork glanced toward the chess board, which had gone untouched since his opponent made his last move. The king stared at the board, his intense gaze taking in the whole thing. He stood there silently for at least twenty minutes before he nodded.

 

"Then he hugged me and told me to make sure I soaked up everything I could from Clockwork's training and left the tower," Phantom said, coming to the end of his explanation. "I have no idea what he saw in the chess board, but he must have figured out the hint because he returned with the Crown of Fire. I won't go into detail about the training with Clockwork. It was long and boring and left me feeling exhausted and frustrated most of the time."

Danny whistled after Phantom fell quiet. "Well, it certainly seems to have paid off. When you came charging in, you really looked like you had been leading an army for decades. You just had this commanding aura surrounding you."

"I would hope so." Phantom puffed out his chest, and Danny wasn't sure if that was conscious action or just the confident way the prince held himself. "That battle against Pariah's men could have gone horribly if they didn't respect my command or if I made a stupid mistake from lack of knowing how to command an army."

"How did you manage to convince your father to let you go back to the real world?" Danny asked curiously.

"Well," Phantom raked a hand through his white hair, "he decided as long as I make time to return to the kingdom every once and while, I could continue my career as a singer. He'll have his hands full with teaching Dora how to fight so that she'll be able to defeat her brother."

"If I was able to, I'd lend her some help. Her brother sounds like a jerk."

"A very big jerk," Phantom agreed with a scowl upon his face. "My father never did like King Aragon. But we couldn't do anything when he stole the throne." He looked like he wanted to hunt Aragon down and give him a good punch to the face. Danny couldn't blame him. "Ah, the portal is opening."

Danny yelped in surprise when Phantom suddenly lifted him into his arms. He reacted on instinct, hugging his arms around the prince's neck, then blushed with embarrassment. Phantom merely smiled and stepped through the portal that opened before them. Danny didn't realize that he had closed his eyes until he opened them to find they were back in the real world. His gaze swept around the area as Phantom set him back on his feet. It looked like they had arrived right back in Amity Park, and the sun had already set. He must have stayed in the Ghost Zone for at least a day, though it felt much longer.

"I say we head back to your apartment and get some food," Danny said, wrapping a hand around his stomach. He had no money on him, and he was starving. "Oh," he winced as he glanced at Phantom, "I didn't mention that I've been living in your place, did I? I totally understand if you want to kick me out. It's just," he sighed, feeling exhausted, "my last roommate was a complete jerk to me, so it was a relief to have Mr. Masters offer your place to me."

Phantom wore an easy smile as he shrugged. "It's not like I really need it as a place to live. At least with you around, the room will _actually_ be used by someone."

Danny could almost drop from relief. He really wasn't sure what he would do if he had to start looking for a new apartment. "I wonder if I should pay a visit to my parents," he said, frowning with worry as they walked around the area. He had a basic idea of where they were, though he didn't spend all that much time in this section of town. "I have no idea how being in the Ghost Zone for such a prolonged period of time is going to affect me. Maybe it won't actually do anything, but there's still a lot we don't fully understand about ecto radiation."

"It doesn't seem like it's done anything to you so far." Phantom eyed him critically, like he was checking for abnormal growths on the human. "I think you're safe for now. Getting some food and rest should be your priority at the moment." He patted his companion on the shoulder, and Danny couldn't argue with him. Hunger and exhaustion pulled at him, and he wished that the apartment was closer.

"Maybe," Danny glanced around hesitantly, "you could just, you know, fly us back? It would probably be faster." It was kind of embarrassing needing to be held by the ghost, but he really didn't think he could make it walking all the way back. He reached up and rubbed at his eyes. First thing he was doing when they returned to the apartment was taking out the annoying contacts.

"Probably the best idea," Phantom agreed as he hoisted Danny back into his arms.

Danny relaxed in his arms, his eyes already slipping closed as Phantom lifted them into the air. He dozed lightly as the wind whipped past them. He must have fallen into a deeper sleep than he meant because he woke to a shout. Arms flailed out as he shot up into a sitting position. The world was blurry for a moment until he blinked a few times to focus them. They were back in Phantom's apartment, and he was sitting on the couch with a blanket thrown over him. He was pretty sure that was a good sign that he would have passed out along the way if they had walked.

"You," Valerie said, pointing an angry finger at Phantom, who held up his hands in defense, but Danny thought he saw some relief in her green eyes. "Do you have any idea what you put me through when you disappeared like that? You, and you," she snapped her finger around to point at Danny, "both have a lot of explaining to do, and I want answers about what happened right now."

Phantom laughed with some nervousness. "And we will. But first," he glanced Danny's way, "I think it would be good to make some food. He hasn't had much to eat since he was brought into the Ghost Zone."

Valerie frowned, anger and concern mixing in her eyes. She was mad at them, but she wasn't a cruel person. "Fine. But after that, you're spilling your guts about what happened." She turned to head into the kitchen.


	23. Chapter 23

It was a relief to Danny to wear his glasses again. His eyes still felt a bit sore, itchy and irritated, but at least now the contacts were out and he was on the way to recovery. He took another large bite of the turkey sandwich that Valerie made for him. It was actually the third one, but he was hungrier than he first realized after he woke up back in Phantom's apartment. Spending that long in the Ghost Zone with nothing but a single burger from Nasty Burger was an experience he didn't wish to repeat. He wiped a glop of mayonnaise from the corner of his mouth then sucked it off his thumb.

"And that's everything that happened," Phantom finished explaining the story from what happened when he first disappeared up until now. Danny had pulled away from his food long enough to fill in bits of what happened with him so that Valerie would have the full picture.

"I can't believe you didn't send word at least." Valerie shook her head as she sat back in her seat at the table with her arms folded. Her mouth pressed thin, and anger remained in her eyes. "It would have saved us a lot of panic and worry." She sighed as she leaned forward on the table. "But I'm glad you're okay. Both of you." A smile pulled at her mouth as she glanced between them. "But that's it, right? You're not going to disappear again because some other uprising in the Ghost Zone, right?" Her expression turned serious again, brow knitting in the center as she frowned.

"I will give warning if I have to return to the Ghost Zone for any reason," Phantom assured her. "So," he said warily, "how angry is Vlad going to be when he sees me again?"

"Well," Valerie considered it as Danny finished off the sandwich, finally feeling stuffed, "he'll be mad that you disappeared but happy that you returned safely." She stared at him then shook her head. "I still can't believe you're a real prince. You never mentioned anything about that."

Phantom shrugged. "I didn't think it was important. I just wanted to be a normal singer. I didn't want people getting caught up on the fact that in the Ghost Zone, I'm a prince. Over here, I'm just a ghost masquerading as a human."

Valerie still looked at him with amazement in her green eyes. "And here I thought all this time I was lucky being the bodyguard of the famous rock star Phantom, and it turns out I was protecting a prince. Does that make me a knight or something?"

Phantom held a hand to his chin in consideration. "I would be honored to have the both of you serving as knights under me. Technically though, only ghosts are allowed to be knights." He frowned then closed his eyes as he pulled his hand away from his chin. "But that's an ancient law from hundreds of years ago. I'm sure I could convince my father that you are both worthy of becoming knights. Being human doesn't restrict your ability to prove yourselves honorable and brave."

"I'm okay with being just an ordinary human," Danny said as he stood up and carried his plate over to the sink to wash it. "Playing Phantom certainly had its moments, but it was also exhausting." He rinsed the plate then set it on the rack next to the sink to dry. Then he turned around, leaning on the counter. "What happened after I was kidnapped? What happened to Paulina? How angry are Sam and Tucker?" He winced at the last question, though he wasn't sure if Valerie went to see them after he was kidnapped by Pariah's goons.

"Paulina was pretty freaked out," Valerie answered as she stood from the table. She led the way into the kitchen where they could sit comfortably as they talked. "After the ghost snagged you, the other ghosts fled. It took me some time after that to get her to calm down and actually tell me what happened." She balled her fists in her lap. "If I had known they were after you, I wouldn't have let you leave my side."

"Don't blame yourself, Valerie." Danny sat down next to her on the couch and laid a hand upon her shoulder. "You made the best call you could with the knowledge you had, and everything worked out well in the end."

"But it could have ended a lot worse." Valerie frowned at him, worry shining in her eyes. He could understand the guilt she felt. It was her job to keep him safe, and he was put in harm's way and could have ended up with some severe injuries besides the shoulder wound, or worse dead, under her watch.

"But it didn't, and I don't want you feeling guilty about what happened," Danny told her seriously as he squeezed her shoulder.

"Val, you really can't put the weight of the entire world on your shoulders," Phantom agreed. "You've done an amazing job so far, and I wouldn't want anyone else to be my bodyguard."

"You two are such saps." Valerie rolled her eyes, but Danny suspected that she appreciated their words.

Danny reached up and rubbed at his eyes beneath his glasses. He was exhausted, and if he hoped to be functional at all in the morning, he really should get some more sleep. "It's going to be weird tomorrow," he mumbled when he dropped his hands. "I got used to having you tag along with me to class, and now you're not going to be there."

"I'm actually going to miss it," Valerie confessed. "It was kind of nice sitting in on classes. It kind of felt like being a normal college student. Other than you know," she laughed, "checking over our shoulders all the time to make sure there wasn't anyone trying to attack you for any reason."

"You know," Phantom said, drawing attention to himself, "I'm going to have to talk to Vlad about spacing out all of my appearances so that I have some more down time. Especially since my father wants me to visit from time to time. During that time," he shrugged as his green eyes landed on Valerie, "you would be free to sit in on classes at the university if you wanted."

"Hey, that could be good!" Danny agreed, grinning widely. "And you could look into what classes interest you since you wouldn't have to stick to my side the whole time."

"That does sound like a very tempting idea," Valerie admitted with a look of consideration. "I did really enjoy hanging out with your friends too." She turned toward Danny with a smile, and Danny could really see that she liked having that feeling of being normal if only for a brief time. "But we should head over to see Vlad early in the morning. Prepare yourself for Vlad's wrath." She pointed a serious finger at Phantom as if daring him to try to weasel out of it. "And I need some sleep. And I'm sure Danny needs more rest after everything that happened. So I think us still living folk should head to bed."

"I'm so dreading going to class tomorrow." Danny groaned as he dragged himself up from the couch. So much had happened recently that he couldn't even remember if he had finished the assignments that his teachers gave out before he was kidnapped. He was going to have to play catch up too, which made him feel even more exhausted. How was he even going to explain his absence? Mr. Lancer was definitely not going to buy any lame excuse that he might come up with. The man was just too sharp sometimes. Danny also had his friends to think about and how angry they would be with him for disappearing.

Valerie patted him on the shoulder as they headed for their rooms. "Better to just get it over with and just dive right back in. If you put it off, you will only let that dread build more and more."

Danny knew she was right, but it didn't make him feel any less apprehensive about setting foot on campus again. After saying goodnight, he shuffled into the bedroom and immediately collapsed onto the bed, falling asleep within seconds.

 

Danny stared up at the gate leading onto campus. It never felt more intimidating to him than it did today. He had no idea what to expect from his friends, his teachers, or even the other students. It was suspicious that he disappeared and suddenly Badger wasn't available for the show. He didn't have much hope that his secret of being a radio personality was still a secret. Anyone that knew him must have put the pieces together by now, and he doubted any of them would sit silently about it.

Exhaling in defeat, Danny forced his feet to carry him through the gate and onto campus. It was still fairly early, and he definitely thought he could use a few more hours of sleep. Valerie and Phantom had left the apartment while he was still eating breakfast, which his stomach was very happy about despite being a little upset during the night after stuffing himself when he hadn't eaten for a day or so.

The campus seemed very much unchanged, though he didn't know why he expected anything to be different. His time in the Ghost Zone couldn't have been much more than a day, two at the most. Most students would still be asleep. Sam and Tucker wouldn't be awake yet, having later classes, which was a relief to him because Danny was dreading their reaction to his return. His first thought was to arrive to his classes a few minutes early to talk with his teachers about his absence. During the night, when he couldn't sleep because of his stomach twisting painfully, he came up with the story that he had to leave school for a little while because his father suffered an accident and he wanted to be there for his parents. It was believable because most of his teachers were aware that his father could be somewhat clumsy. He made a mental note to pay a visit to his parents' house during the upcoming weekend to tell them everything that happened and have them run some scans on him to see if the ecto radiation affected him in any way.

Danny walked through campus, heading toward his first class. It was easy to fall back into the habit of observing the world around him for anything to include on the show, though there weren't many people hanging out around campus yet.

"You!"

Danny twisted around then gulped as he spotted Dash storming toward him. The big football jock loomed like a dark angry shadow before him, grabbing hold of him as his fist twisted around the fabric of Danny's hooded sweatshirt.

"You better be ready to apologize, Fenton," Dash growled, dragging Danny another step closer to him. "Do you have any idea what you put Paulina through?"

"Dash, seriously!" Paulina huffed in annoyance while Kwan pried his friend's hand free from Danny's sweatshirt. "I told you I'm okay."

"Well, I'm not," Dash grumbled, folding his arms as he narrowed his eyes at Danny.

Danny tugged at his sweatshirt, trying to smooth out the wrinkles caused by Dash grabbing him. "I am sorry about what happened." He turned his gaze onto Paulina and frowned apologetically at her. "I never would have wanted you to get caught up in something like that. If I had known what was going to happen, I would have told you to run away so you would be safe."

Paulina shifted, hugging her arms about her body. "They weren't after me. Once they took you away, they left me alone. But," she shrugged her shoulders, "it still felt pretty traumatic to me."

"I'm sorry, Paulina." Danny frowned with a feeling of guilt gnawing at him. "Is there any way I can make that up to you?"

Paulina blinked at him in surprise. "I didn't-" She shook her head. "Being kidnapped by ghosts, you probably suffered more trauma than I did. You don't have to do anything for me." She glanced to her friends. Dash still looked pissed that Paulina got involved with the ghost attack because of him while Kwan seemed to be trying to calm his friend's wrath. Stepping forward, Paulina cupped one hand around the side of her mouth and whispered, "I'm sorry. I know that Valentine girl that's been hanging around you tried to calm me down after what happened, but I still kind of needed to talk to someone after I got back to the apartment, so I sort of told Dash and Kwan about you. How you were filling in for Phantom." She winced with a hint of guilt in her emerald eyes.

Danny shook his head with a small laugh. "Don't worry about that. I won't be doing that anymore." He cast a glance toward Dash. "I don't get any cool points for that?"

Dash's mouth pressed thin. "You get _some_ ," he admitted. "But don't think that means we're going to be buddies."

"Of course not." Danny resisted rolling his eyes.

"Wait!" Paulina suddenly latched onto his arm. "Does that mean Phantom is back? The real Phantom? Did you meet him? How did that happen?"

"Uh." Danny rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck. "It happened after I was rescued. You know, Guys in White stopped the ghosts before they could do anything to me." He shrugged. "Anyway, since I've been living his apartment while filling in for him, when I got back, he was already back."

"Oh! That's great!" Paulina sighed in relief with a happy smile as she pressed a hand over her chest. Then her eyes widened. "Not that it isn't great that you weren't harmed by the ghosts. Because that's good too! I'm really glad you weren't hurt."

Danny smiled weakly. His shoulder still throbbed quite a bit. Maybe he should make that visit to his parents sooner than the weekend so that they could check on it and maybe prescribe him some painkillers to help with the lingering soreness. "You three haven't spread that around, right?" His gaze flicked among the three of them. Even if he was no longer posing as Phantom, he still thought it better that the people who knew was kept to a minimum.

"We haven't breathed a word about it outside the three of us," Paulina answered.

"Although, we did notice that Badger's show that night was unusual." Kwan eyed him with some suspicion that made Danny gulp. "It didn't sound like the Badger we all knew. And since you were kidnapped earlier that day," he shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets, "the logical conclusion is that you are Badger. We also didn't spread that around."

"Please don't say anything about that," Danny begged with a wash of dread sliding down his spine. "I really want to stay anonymous."

"We'll stay silent." Dash's mouth stretched into a crooked smirk. "If you let us be there when Phantom finally turns up to do the show."

Danny frowned. He didn't like being blackmailed. But was it worth it to say no to that demand if it meant exposing his secret identity? "Fine." He sighed. "But try to be a bit cool about it. You know, don't just sit there saying how much you love his music and stuff. And if I let you ask questions on air, ask him something interesting."

"Come on, Fenton." Dash snorted. "We're the cool kids on campus."

Danny rolled his eyes at the cocky smirk on the jock's face. "Sure, sure. I need to get to class now. You know, gotta see what I missed so I can make it up."

Paulina nodded in understanding. "We'll see you later then." She waved before she dragged her friends off with her.

Danny took a deep breath and released it slowly. That could have gone worse, so he was relieved that it went well. Turning around, he continued on his way to his first class.


	24. Chapter 24

When it finally came time to face his friends, Danny dreaded it, wanting to just slink off to a dark corner to avoid their anger. Luckily, his teachers believed his story about having to rush home because his father had an accident. Danny was happy that Paulina and her friends didn't spread around what really happened and that his teachers wouldn't actually bother to check out his story. Except Lancer. He still wasn't sure how he was going to explain things to Lancer, and that class was growing ever closer. But Lancer had proved that he could keep a secret, so perhaps there was no harm in actually telling him the truth.

Valerie had called him just before his last class of the morning to tell him how things went for Phantom. Mr. Masters was, naturally, angry that one of his big stars suddenly vanished on him and put him in that difficult situation of figuring out how to cover up the disappearance. But after explanations were made, Mr. Masters' anger dissolved into relief that Phantom was all right and unharmed. And that Danny, himself, wasn't severely injured, though he was sorry to hear that Danny had suffered a sword stabbed into his shoulder. Mr. Masters did agree to Phantom's request to spread out his appearances to allow for more down time so that the prince could return to his kingdom every once and a while. Danny was certain that Sam would be happy to know that Valerie told him Phantom would be able to appear on his radio show sometime within the next week.

Danny took a deep breath and walked over to where his friends sat, already enjoying their lunches. Their expressions, however, were grim, like they had just received some terrible news. When they heard his approach, they lifted their gaze to him then dropped their eyes back to their lunches. A moment passed then they both snapped their heads back up and stared at him with wide eyes and their mouths hanging open. Lunch was forgotten in their haste to scramble to their feet.

"Danny!" they both shouted as they nearly tackled him.

"Hi," Danny said awkwardly, wincing at the throb the sudden embrace caused to his shoulder. "Ouch. Okay. Okay." He managed to pull himself free from their hold. "Sorry. My shoulder still hurts like crazy."

"What happened to you?" Sam demanded as the three friends sat down, Sam and Tucker trying to recover their lunches. They couldn't wipe the shock off their faces, and if things hadn't been serious, Danny might have laughed.

"Yeah, I mean, you didn't show up for the show, so we had to fill in for you." Tucker scratched at the back of his head as he winced. "I don't think we did good enough job to cover up that the real Badger disappeared though."

"Yeah." Danny frowned at his friend. "Paulina, Dash, and Kwan now know I'm the one behind Badger." He sighed tiredly, but at least, the three A lists seemed like they would keep the secret. "They want to be in the studio when Phantom comes to do the interview though. Which," he turned to Sam, "should be sometime in the next week."

Sam's eyes slowly clouded with her confusion, one eyebrow lifting. "Wait." She shook her head. "How do you know that? I haven't even _heard_ from his manager. I think you need to back up and explain everything from the beginning."

Danny exhaled heavily, his shoulders slumping as he leaned forward with his elbows balanced on his knees. He didn't really feel like explaining it all over again, but he had to tell his friends something. They deserved answers after his disappearing act, though that really wasn't his fault. He reached up and raked a hand through his raven locks.

"The short story is that for the past little while, since the day Paulina dragged me out to take the pictures for the contest, I've been filling in as Phantom." Danny stopped to glance between his friends, waiting to gauge their reactions.

Tucker snorted before the laughter burst out of him. "Seriously, Danny?" He held his side like it hurt from laughing. "That's the story you want to go with?" Sam reached over and punched him on the shoulder.

Danny frowned at him then reached into his bag where he had stuffed the wig that he used when dressing up as Phantom. He thought there was a good chance that his friends wouldn't believe him. After a quick glance around the area, he yanked on the wig, trying to tuck every lock of raven hair under it. Then he pulled off his glasses, despite the way it made the world blurry for him.

"Now just imagine that I have the green contacts in," he told his friends.

Tucker instantly fell silent, and when he put his glasses back on, Danny saw Tucker staring at him in complete shock, utterly speechless to see how much his friend looked like Phantom. Danny tore off the wig then stuffed it back into his bag.

"Wow," Sam breathed, just as surprised as Tucker. "How did we never notice that before? Wait!" Her expression twisted to one of anger and betrayal. "That whole time, you were pretending to be Phantom, and you didn't tell us _anything_?" She folded her arms, violet eyes glaring.

"I promised Mr. Masters that I wouldn't tell _anyone_ , even the two of you. And trust me, I would have been happy to let you in on the secret. Valerie only knew because she's Phantom's bodyguard. That's why she isn't here today. Because Phantom returned with me last night, so she's back to sticking by his side to protect him."

"Hold up." Tucker held up a hand to stop him from saying me. "Back up again. What do you mean Phantom returned with you last night? Returned from where exactly? Where did you go? I mean, on the news just before you didn't turn up for the show there was a story about a ghost attack downtown, but the Guys in White didn't mention anything about anyone being hurt. We," Tucker cringed, "may have jumped to the conclusion that A the Guys in White are idiots and B they would probably cover up everything if someone _was_ hurt in the attack. So we may have panicked about you being hurt or killed by the ghosts. I mean, we were pretty certain we saw Valerie in the background while the reporter was talking to the Guys in White. And since the two of you had pretty much been joined at the hip, and she looked rather worried and you weren't anywhere to be seen." He shrugged awkwardly, but the worry was clear in his green eyes.

"Well, I think I'm halfway glad the Guys in White didn't realize anything happened beyond random ghost attack." Danny breathed out a relieved sigh. "But the ghosts in that attack did kidnap me and drag me to the Ghost Zone." He almost laughed at the comical expressions of shock and horror on his friends' faces. "I'm okay, but I am going to visit my parents for a checkup later. Okay. Not one hundred percent okay. I did kind of get stabbed with a sword."

"Dude," Tucker breathed out with his eyes wide enough to see the white all the way around.

"Okay. Basic sum up is that this evil tyrant king believed I really was Phantom so he had his goons kidnap me and bring me back to his castle as a hostage to use as leverage against another king in the Ghost Zone. Oh, I should mention that Phantom is actually a prince in the Ghost Zone. But since Phantom was already with his father, the king, plotting out how to stage their attack on Pariah - that's the evil tyrant king - they knew I wasn't the real Phantom, but their spy informed them that I was there. And Skulker had already told them about how Mr. Masters found me to fill in for Phantom while he was missing." Danny paused briefly to take a deep breath after his rambling. "Oh! There was also a princess from another kingdom held prisoner there, so I tried to help free her, but then I ended up getting stabbed by Pariah. There was a lot of running around, but we got saved when Phantom and his father showed up to lay the smack down on Pariah. After all of that, Phantom and I finally returned back here last night, but since it was really late, and I was nearly dead on my feet with exhaustion and hunger, I didn't really have the energy to call you both to tell you what happened. Please don't hurt me." He winced as if expecting them to punch him for making them worry about him.

"That would probably make for a good story," Tucker mumbled, still too surprised by everything Danny just told them. "I mean, seriously, if you were looking for a career choice, you could probably be a writer."

Sam slapped him on the shoulder, and Tucker flinched, reaching up to rub at his arm. Sam glared at him then turned to Danny. "That's-" She shook her head. "I know you wouldn't lie to us, but that story does sound like it kind of goes over the top." She frowned, the struggle to believe her friend taking place within her eyes.

"I was there, and it still feels a bit like a dream." Danny laughed, shaking his head. He was glad at least that his friends were more worried about his wellbeing than angry at him vanishing on them. Pulling out his own lunch from his bag that he picked up at the cafeteria, Danny happily dug into it. Their conversation drifted to talk about the show and things that Danny had missed and some more questions about his trip into the Ghost Zone. Danny was happy that things were settling back to normal.

 

"Friendly reminder that tomorrow is Amity Park University's Dean Ishiyama's seventeenth wedding anniversary, so if you cross paths with her, be sure to give her a big congratulations," Danny said, still happy to be back behind the microphone after a week of being back on the job.

He managed to pay a visit to his parents earlier, and they were greatly concerned after he told about the whole kidnapped into the Ghost Zone story. Though he was concerned about his parents blathering the truth about Phantom's identity as a ghostly prince to the world, he really had no other explanation that he could give them to explain why any ghost would kidnap him and take him into the Ghost Zone. For his own wellbeing, the truth seemed like the best option. His parents found no obvious signs that the ecto radiation caused any ill effects on him, though the ecto energy used to craft the thread in the stitching of his shoulder was something they thought might be problematic. Who knew how the radiation from it entering his bloodstream directly might affect him? But that was why they wanted him to come back for checkups at least once a month and report anything abnormal that he noticed, so that they could catch any possible long term effects in their early stages.

"We have another special guest with us tonight," Danny continued, casting a glance toward Paulina, who couldn't stop blushing as she stared at Phantom sitting across from her. "Since Phantom finally," Danny smirked as Phantom shook his head, "decided to join us, I thought it would be nice to invite our contest winner onto the show. Say hello to everyone, Paulina."

"Hi," Paulina said into the microphone with an unusual shyness about her.

"As I was telling you earlier, Phantom, our football team won the game against our rival's of Elm University, all thanks to the amazing leadership of our star quarterback and team captain Dash Baxter. So I thought it would be great to hold a little photo contest where everyone could take pictures of Dash and send them in to be voted on for which one was best. Paulina had that winning picture."

"I'd love to see it," Phantom said with an easy smile that made Paulina blush even more. At the door of the studio, Danny could see Sam rolling her eyes at the popular woman.

"I have it right here." Danny pulled out his laptop, bringing up the picture quickly and passing the laptop over to Phantom.

"That's very cute," Phantom said. "Is he your boyfriend? He's very lucky if he is."

Paulina shook her head, her mouth opening to reply when Danny acted swiftly, covering her microphone as he told the audience, "Oh! It looks like you're making her blush, Phantom. I think we'll go to a song until she recovers." He cued up a song to play, and when they could speak freely again, he frowned at Paulina. "You were about to say you didn't have boyfriend."

"Well, I don't," Paulina said, blinking in innocent confusion at him.

Danny's eyes darted toward where Dash and Kwan stood leaning against the wall of the studio. They were doing well in keeping silent during the show, though it was clear they were bursting with excitement over meeting Phantom. "But you have the whole university believing Dash _is_ your boyfriend. The stalker from freshmen year, remember?"

Paulina's eyes widened as her hand covered her mouth. "Oh! I had almost forgotten about that."

"A stalker?" Phantom questioned.

"Oh yeah, I remember that," Sam said, and there was _almost_ sympathy for Paulina in her eyes. "That guy was pretty creepy."

"No kidding!" Paulina cringed just remembering her stalker. "I was scared to go anywhere around campus without someone around me because the guy kept trying to corner me. That's why Dash agreed to pretend to be my boyfriend. With him or Kwan always at my side, the creep wouldn't come near me."

Phantom turned his gaze toward the two jocks. "I can see why. Who would want to mess with two strong jocks?"

Danny bit his lip to keep from laughing at the way Dash puffed out his chest in pride. "Yeah, they're both really protective of Paulina. I'm kind of surprised they never went straight for the guy and threatened him to leave Paulina alone."

"Dash wanted to," Kwan admitted with a shrug of one shoulder. "But I reminded him that any violence on campus meant that he could kiss his scholarship goodbye."

"That's a wise decision. An education is very important." Phantom nodded. "But it's good that you have such good friends that look out for your safety." He turned a smile onto Paulina, who ducked her head, pushing back a lock of ebony hair as her cheeks turned a soft shade of pink.

"Welcome back, listeners," Danny said when the microphones came back on, raising a hand to stop all off air conversations. "I'm sure some of you are on the edge of your seats waiting to hear our contest winner's answer to Phantom's question. Well, Paulina, what's the answer? Is famous quarterback Dash Baxter your boyfriend?"

"He is," Paulina answered, playing it off very well as if she was shy about admitting it to a large radio audience. "Ah, but that isn't the reason I won," she added quickly. "I wouldn't have won without so many people liking the picturing of us together. So I want to thank everyone that voted for my picture."

"We're nearly the end of the hour, so I think we should take a few more calls for Phantom from his fans," Danny suggested. "But before that, do you have anything you want to ask Phantom, Paulina?"

She considered for a moment, tilting her head to the side so her long ebony hair draped over one shoulder. "What was it like for you growing up?"

"Well, my father could be rather strict," Phantom admitted, but Danny could understand why his father was like that. Phantom's childhood wasn't as carefree as a normal person's, or probably even a normal ghost's, since he was a prince. He had things that he was required to learn, and that meant strict discipline. "But he was still a loving father, and he would take the time when he wasn't busy with meetings to play with me. Our relationship was, naturally, a bit strained when I decided to run off and become a singer, but I think recently we've reconnected and learned to see each other's side a bit better."

"I bet everyone would love to see some pictures from when you were a child," Danny said with a light chuckle, though he doubted there were any pictures that Phantom could actually show the public without revealing himself as a ghost and a prince. "All right. Let's go to the lines." He clicked a button on the panel. "Hello, caller. You're on the air. What's your question for Phantom?"

Some callers had the same old questions with "Do you have a girlfriend?" being the one that most women wanted to know. Danny smiled along, throwing in comments every now and then as Phantom answered the callers. Life was settling back into something normal. While what happened during his time pretending to be Phantom got hectic and crazy, he didn't think he would change any of it. He now had a very nice place to live with two great roommates who liked him. Valerie and Phantom were both giving him some lessons in defending himself and fighting back. That progress was a bit slow for now since his shoulder was still recovering. After some of their training, Phantom would "ice" his shoulder, which mostly involved just resting his hands on the shoulder and letting his natural ghostly coolness wash over the heated soreness.

Danny was able to get back on track fairly quickly with his school work without his grades suffering. After class that first day back, he sat down with Lancer and explained everything to him. He feared his teacher wouldn't believe him, and he thought he saw a flicker of doubt in the man's green eyes. But after some consideration, Lancer seemed to decide that Danny wouldn't come up with such a story just to explain a day or two of missed classes. Lancer did suggest he be more careful in the future about the obligations and promises he chose to make. He didn't want such a bright student to fall victim to overtaxing himself by being pulled in too many directions. He was very happy that Danny returned whole and healthy, though he hoped Danny wouldn't get another sword through any part of his body again anytime in the near future.

Ember was keeping in contact with him. Her first date with Skulker went surprisingly well. At least, from what Skulker told him. Ember's version differed a bit, but the hunter seemed to be growing on her. Even though Phantom was back, she was still interested in having him sing with her. She wanted both of them to be featured on her next album. Mr. Masters was, apparently, already trying to come up with an image for him that would still allow him go about his regular life without harassment. Danny almost laughed at some of the names that the man was thinking of calling his rock star persona. Banshee, Specter, Shade, Wraith. The manager apparently wanted to have Danny follow the same ghostly theme as Phantom. Danny was just happy that the man considered his feelings and that his main desire in life wasn't to become some famous rock star. It wasn't an entirely bad life, but in the end, he was much happier working from the shadows.

"Well, I'm afraid that's the end of the hour," Danny said after Phantom answered the last caller's question. "I know plenty more of you probably had another thousand questions for Phantom, but maybe we can convince him to come on the show again." He glanced over to the rock star, and Phantom nodded in agreement. "I'll see you all again tomorrow night. This is Badger, signing off."


End file.
